Societe Generale Secures Top Spot as 2020 Clean Energy Lead Arranger
Interview of Olivier Musset, Global Head of Energy, by Clean Energy Pipeline
French investment and commercial bank Societe Generale has been named the top Lead Arranger by deal value, thanks to 32 deals totalling $3.49 billion, in Clean Energy Pipeline’s 2020 League Tables for global Clean Energy Project Finance.
Clean Energy Pipeline recently spoke with Olivier Musset, the Global Head of Energy at Societe Generale, to discuss the bank’s activity and the trends that are driving the clean energy sector.
According to Musset, Societe Generale’s position atop the League Tables was driven largely by the bank’s global reach, with operations in more than 30 countries, and its strong advisory capacity, which enables it to quickly adapt to new technologies and investment models.
Once a niche sector, clean energy, led by solar and wind generation, has become a formidable force in the market, with a total project finance value of $228 billion in 2020, including more than $200 billion for solar and wind. These figures were sourced independently from Clean Energy Pipeline’s own research and were published as part of the
Clean Energy Market Outlook 2021 report published in January 2021.
Offshore wind has especially taken off in recent years and has become an important part of Societe Generale’s investment portfolio due to the sheer size of developments and the large amount of capital necessary to reach commercial operation.
Musset specifically pointed to the US, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan as upcoming leaders in this sector, with Societe Generale having participated in every one of Taiwan’s
offshore projects to date.
Elsewhere in the clean energy sector, Societe Generale is active in waste-to-energy, low-carbon hydrogen, CCS, battery storage, and interconnection cables; although these will likely remain a minor portion of its overall activity in the sector over the near-term.
One additional driver of growth in clean energy, says Musset, is recent technological advancements, such as floating wind and solar, that stand to significantly open countries to clean energy that were previously more restricted.
Read the full article page 2-3 in the BANKING ON RENEWABLES: TOP CLEAN ENERGY LEAD ARRANGERS 2021 magazine by Clean Energy Pipeline.
