Reducing carbon
We have an aggressive mandate to reduce our carbon footprint. How can Compass help us achieve our goal?
Decarbonization requires precise planning, along with rapid investment action at scale. The Compass platform is designed to deliver both, developing and financing creative commercial and technical solutions to counter climate change.
Community resiliency
We need to prepare for weather disasters. Can Compass support our effort to build a more resilient community?
Backup energy sources, protected by microgrids, are key to any resilience plan. But it is sometimes difficult to put a specific dollar value on such resilience. Compass knows how to evaluate and qualify investments in energy resilience; our platform partners know how to design and build these assets in a cost-effective manner.
Risk management
Isn’t there a great deal of risk involved in energy infrastructure development?
There is substantial risk – in development, operation and ownership. Add to this fact that most government entities and business are not ideally equipped to bear these risks. Compass was created to transfer project risk away from cities and companies, taking on and managing all of the technical, commercial and financial risk associated with these complex projects.
How do we know that we won’t have to redo our project to accommodate some future development?
Technology changes quickly, and regulations change as well, creating risk of stranded assets. Compass takes a progressive and phased approach to project development, designing “no-regret” assets to future-proof each project.
Standing the test of time
Project financing
We’re… well… capital constrained. Can you provide all the project financing we need?
Yes. Compass provides project equity investment, and we source project debt and tax investment. We are also able to incorporate funding from local green banks, if desired. And we seek out and include all possible incentives and grants. Because Compass finances and owns the final energy assets, what would have been capital expenditures for cities and companies now become off-balance-sheet operating expenses – “energy as a service.”
We’ve been told to think of our planned energy project as a business. What does that mean, exactly?
To guarantee the long-term success of any energy project, it must stand on its own two feet – it must generate sufficient revenue to survive. This revenue can take the form of PPA contracts with local offtakers, energy sales back to the grid, and resilience payments, to name a few options. During the earliest stages of development, Compass works to define sustainable project revenue, which may include hidden capabilities and unexpected customers.
Sustainable revenue
How do we know that Compass has the interests of our community at heart?
Because Compass has an ownership interest in the project – and won’t see a return on its investment until the project is successful – our interests are naturally aligned with project counterparties and the community. This makes Compass different from a fee-based developer, who often has no future stake. Further, Compass naturally provides detailed service-level performance guarantees (and penalties) for the assets it develops. Finally, Compass develops a separate Community Benefits Agreement that formalizes our commitment.
Performance guarantees
Still have questions? Please go to our contact page and we’ll get right back to you!