Blackstone backs energy infrastructure with new portfolio company

GSO Capital Partners’ funds are being used by Blackstone to form a new portfolio company that will finance and own distributed and sustainable energy infrastructure assets focused on commercial, industrial and institutional customers. The new company, ClearGen, will initially receive a $250 million commitment from $138 billion GSO and expects to expand as the capital is deployed. The entity was co-founded by former power company executive George Plattenburg, who is ClearGen’s CEO. He previously held management roles at Duke Energy, Indianapolis Power & Light, Servidyne, Prenova, Burton Energy Group and Expedient Communications. Assisting Plattenburg is co-founder Collin Franceschi, who is chief development officer at ClearGen. He has 20 years of experience, most recently leading the commercial team at Duke Energy, focusing on project development and execution for portfolio investments in distributed generation. “Energy consumers face a range of challenges, including cost and risk management and the reliability of supply that affects critical operations,” said Plattenburg. “When you combine these with a broad focus on de-carbonization, there is a rapidly growing need for ClearGen’s capital and expertise.” According to Franceschi, ClearGen will finance a wide range of revenue streams and diverse customers to allow the firm’s partners to accelerate growth. “We look forward to working with ClearGen and it industry leading partner to meet the significant growth in behind-the-meter energy systems in North America,” said Robert Horn, senior managing director at Blackstone and co-head of GSO’s Energy Group. Together ClearGen and Blackstone will offer flexible capital solutions and programmatic investments alongside equipment manufacturers, developers and energy service companies that develop and operate distributed infrastructure. Through such partnerships, ClearGen is planning to invest in a variety of assets including microgrids, distributed generation, renewable energy combined with batter storage, energy efficiency investments, green transportation and combined heat and power plants. According to officials, the market for on-site renewable projects is growing as energy consumers are faced with rising energy costs, service outages caused by extreme weather and natural disasters, and a desire to improve the sustainability of their operations.

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