CapEQ has teamed up with sustainable energy partner Ecologi to invest in six green energy projects as part of the M&A advisor’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions.

From Amazon rainforest conservation to solar farms in the Egyptian desert, Europe’s first B-Corp corporate finance firm uses some of its profits to help people around the world reduce negative environmental impacts and live more sustainably.

Since August, we have backed six exciting projects, outlined below.

Landfill methane energy conversion in Brazil

In Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, SE Brazil, this project collects methane gas from two landfill sites and converts the gas into clean energy with two 1.4MW engines.

The scheme is expected to add 350,000MW hours back into Brazil’s national grid during its lifetime.

Additionally the project creates local jobs and income, with qualified operators employed to maintain and operate the machinery.

Cooking stoves in Tanzania

This project will issue and install 500,000 fuel-efficient cookstoves throughout Tanzania, replacing less open fires.

From 2020-30, the stoves will remove over 18.8m tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, collecting data and inspecting homes to make sure they are being used.

Not only will this scheme dramatically reduce the use of firewood – a major cause of deforestation in East Africa – but will free up time, increase food security and cut woodsmoke pollution in homes.

Solar farm in Vietnam

We joined thousands of other investors to back a new 60ha solar farm in the Vinh Hao commune in Binh Thuan province (east of Ho Chi Minh City).

The project will generate 83,000MW hours of electricity a year using PV panels to transform sunlight into electricity.

Construction has been carefully managed to minimise local environmental impact, and has local approval from the People’s Committee of Binh Thuan province.

Wind farm in South Africa

Near the town of De Aar in Northern Cape, we have invested in 96 turbines to help address South Africa’s ongoing powercuts.

This clean energy source at Longyuan Mulilo De Aar 2 North Wind Energy Facility will avoid around 400,000 tonnes of CO2 a year by replacing coal-fired electricity and creating 300 local jobs over its lifetime.

Turbine scheduling has been coordinated to minimise the impact of the blades on local bird and bat populations. An additional benefit has been upgrading five boreholes to meet local water demand.

Amazon rainforest conservation in Peru

As construction of the new trans-Amazonian road from the Atlantic to Pacific coast continues, we have backed the Madre de Dios Amazon Project in SE Peru to protect c.100k ha of tropical rainforest.

The road is expected to increase immigration of new settlers into Madre De Dios – largely arable and livestock farmers – and lessons from the road already built in Brazil suggests this would result in deforestation and forest degradation.

The project aims to guarantee sustainable forest management via two timber concessions, while preventing 660,000 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere every year.

It will also provide alternative jobs to logging and farming, especially for indigenous communities in the area. The scheme deploys satellite imagery, LiDAR, and machine learning to monitor success and calculate annual carbon reduction.

Solar farm in Egypt

Egypt has long suffered from power cuts. In Benban, near Aswan in SE Egypt, construction of 41 solar power plants is underway to form the world’s biggest solar park.

Each solar plant will generate 150,000MW hours of energy a year by converting sunlight using PV panels, which will feed into Egypt’s national grid.