IOWN

Top 10 Leading Energy Solution Companies To Watch In 2023

Climate change is not just a hot topic anymore; it has become a global concern, and organizations worldwide are doing their best to do their bit to reverse climate change.

One such organization is IOWN. IOWN is building the new energy era while reversing climate change by investing in projects, people, and ideas within the power and energy sector.

The recent policy reform sets the stage for transitioning to a much cleaner energy system in the U.S. The political support toward clean energy is the highest it has ever been in the United States, evidenced by the recent passing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Talking about the trends shaping the Energy arena, IOWN, Hans-Christian Schulze, CEO, said, “IOWN is already in the process of leveraging federal and state support by developing high-quality wind, solar, and energy storage projects at a rapid pace and scale that will use these credits to help the U.S. reach its goals. Clean technologies are evolving and outperforming fossil fuel generation in performance and cost, creating competition and shifts in the energy market. We are seeing renewable energy projects coming online at an increasing rate. IOWN is equipped to deliver high-quality assets to our growing customer base of primarily institutional investors.”

With the significant volumes of intermittent energy production entering the power system, more energy storage will become necessary. Additionally, the need for more competent grid operation and regulatory reforms that allow power to flow freely across larger regions to serve the load will also rise.

While the current power system requires upgrades and modernization, there is a need to plan and build new transmission projects. These are critical components in the execution of renewable projects at the required pace. Several interregional transmission projects have been proposed that will support the growth of renewables, integration across markets, and a better balance of supply and demand. But long lead times, siting, and permitting are hurdles in moving the transmission projects from development to execution.

Last year proved the industry’s resilience to overcome hurdles such as global supply chain crunch, policy uncertainty, trade restrictions, increased shipping costs, and rising prices for essential commodities.

“We are rapidly growing our team and project pipeline to serve U.S. energy customers and investors in the pursuit of modernization of the power generation fleet and doing our part to minimize the impact of climate change,” Schulze added.

A major challenge in the Energy space is the global energy crisis, and it is real. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is proof of how fragile the global energy supply is and how important it is for a well-functioning society, industries, and other actors. Energy independence is something every country around the globe is, or should be, thinking about, and it will lead to the installation of more domestic generation, both fossil-fired and renewable, and in some cases, possibly nuclear.

While the solar and wind sectors are rapidly growing, more needs to be done, and we need to scale clean energy deployment quicker. The need for governments to ease the regulations for the projects to get deployed faster is another challenge the energy industry faces.

“Our team is laser-focused on analyzing new trends to identify new opportunities to develop projects that create value for communities and power users across the U.S. We strive to build and maintain meaningful relationships with stakeholders setting mutual goals that help get more projects on the ground. Together we can go further,” Schulze said.

Elaborating on the statement, – We invest in projects, people, and ideas within the power and energy sector – Schulze said that IOWN strives to be the front-runner in development, engineering, procurement, finance, construction, sale, and operation of top-tier renewable energy assets. To achieve this, they place a high value on building a cohesive team that values execution. To be in control. To own it. That is where the name, IOWN, stems from.

The IOWN team has comprehensive project origination, development, asset management, and finance capabilities bolstered by decades of diverse, relevant experience across North America, LATAM, and Europe.

“Our team combines the key ingredients of industry experience, market intelligence, and ingenuity to proficiently evaluate opportunities and successfully increase value at each stage in the process. We do it for ourselves and our clients.  We have a designated R&D team looking at a variety of opportunities crossing our desk focusing on the most promising ideas with the highest potential to commercialize,” Schulze said.

In the last two years, IOWN has facilitated the development, construction, and sale of its first operational utility-scale wind project in the US. Project origination and development have always been at the core of their operation and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. “We excel at choosing the best projects with the highest potential for success, and we provide solid investments in operating renewable energy projects to our customers,” added Schulze.

Citing the case studies, Schulze said that their first construction project was Wind Wall I. The project was a wind repower project developed for their client. The project was a full repower of an existing facility with an original operation date of 1985. IOWN replaced about 400 old turbines with 13 new modern ones, which increased the energy output and reduced the footprint. With less than 5% of the previous WTG count, the energy-generating capacity of the project was increased about four-fold with a project nameplate capacity of 46.5 MW.

Wind Wall 1 is a model example of how the wind industry can strive to reach new ways of circular development, but the project had its unique challenges. As the intent with Wind Wall 1 was to sell a fully operational asset, securing an investor, sponsor, and contractor during the COVID pandemic was an unexpected challenge. The team overcame the challenge by successfully developing, constructing, and selling a high-quality, high-performing asset that met or exceeded stakeholder expectations.

Citing another case study, Schulze said, “As a battery energy storage systems (BESS) site developer, IOWN has experience in siting projects in densely populated urban areas. BESS projects improve grid reliability, and projects are commonly desired near high-demand substations where land is in short supply. IOWN’s reputation and experience have led to relationships with vendors, system integrators, and EPCs to maximize site density and speed to market. IOWN is currently developing 300+ MW of standalone BESS projects in California on behalf of its customers. IOWN has increased energy density by over 35% by developing creative partnerships, hiring the right talent, and executing efficient project design. 

While talking about the market competition, Schulze said he is super excited by the challenge and vision of building a company fueled by driven people, seamlessly working in sync to passionately pursue innovative and fresh ideas, and always setting the market for sustainable and clean energy solutions.

Last year, IOWN won the Best Energy Workplaces Award based on its proven efforts in providing health and wellness programs, professional development programs, family-friendly policies, flexible work options, building a diverse workforce, and being engaged in their local communities. 

While renewable energy is the most modern of the power sectors, it is still heavily dominated by men. To contrary of many other energy companies, their U.S. organization is currently 40% female, and that is because they hire the best people for each role irrespective of any discriminating factor.  A non-traditional profile can be a great asset when trying to do extraordinary things. This enables them to stay on the cutting edge.

“With the right talent on our team, working seamlessly together to create the best solutions, the best projects, the lowest energy cost, and the highest profitability, we are already on our way to having others admire our work, culture, and company,” said Schulze.  

Speaking about the future, Schulze said that they are in growth mode and expanding rapidly beyond the core markets where they started back in 2014.

“Our footprint has grown from 450 MW in the southwestern US to more than 6,000 MW of projects from the Midwest to the West Coast. Concurrently our team is actively analyzing new projects and markets to evaluate further expansion. Simultaneously, IOWN has re-established its operations in Northern Europe, where we are growing a team and building a pipeline of projects, currently focused on Sweden and Norway.”  

Further, IOWN plans to expand and scale up its operations, leveraging its experience gained over the past decades, and continue forming valuable relationships with other developers, energy consumers, utilities, landowners, and investors to achieve their goals within the sustainability space.

IOWN established an R&D group in 2021 to advance non-traditional project development. The team is focused on innovative and creative ways to disrupt ‘business as usual.’

“Our R&D department was established to allow these ideas, which may have seemed impossible, to mature and become a reality contributing to the energy solution.  Finding solutions to problems is at the core of what motivates us,” said Schulze.

Highlighting the company's commitment, Schulze revealed they started with nothing and are committed to becoming a new energy unicorn. They strive to do everything a bit better and more innovative every day. And while their operations are still small, they have achieved great things and developed billion-dollar projects.

“As we grow, we will keep grounded and instill the mindset of never giving up. Every small failure is the recipe for large success,” said Schulze.