The book writing journey continues, with research finally complete. This week, I had the opportunity to sit down with the renewables financier that helped raise the industry’s profile on Wall Street throughout the 90s and 2000s and the first-ever recipient of @bloombergnef‘s Financier of the Year Award: John Cavalier.
Our conversations took us through the ups and downs of silicon pricing in the early solar market, attempts at getting solar thermal off the ground, the magic around flywheels & early storage technologies, the future of SPACs, and most notably, the careers and IPOs John has launched in his 40+ years in investment banking.
Known for the principal roles he played in the IPOs of @sunpower, Suntech, REC, Cosan, @fslrcareers and @iberdrola, we spoke about the visionary CEOs behind these – now very known – corporate brands in the renewables industry, ranging from Tom Werner, Dick Swanson and Zhengrong Shi to Mike Ahern, Tim Healy/EnerNOC and David Crane. We also took a moment to remember the creator of the feed-in tariff that sparked Germany’s renewables industry, the late Herman Scheer.
“They weren’t afraid of the unknown and they thought they knew what should happen,” reflected John. “They weren’t afraid that no one else had gone there before them and so they had the courage and excitement needed for their journey.”
