Macquarie launches 'magic ingredient' Corio to speed finance of global offshore wind build

International investment house Macquarie has launched a pure-play offshore wind unit to build on the development of its 15GW project pipeline to accelerate sector deployment around world, led by two giants of the industry, Jonathan Cole and Samuel Leupold.

“And when we look at the scale of what we have got, [we felt] the time was nigh that we put it in the proper structure with proper leadership to capture the momentum, that weight of industrial substance we have as this industry looks forward to enormous volumes this decade and beyond.”

As one of the “earliest investors” in the offshore wind market that now has development portfolios stretching across the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Australia, Dooley said, Corio would now also apply “all its energy to deliver the next generation of offshore wind projects [by] leveraging deep expertise and access to capital”.

Corio will be led by Jonathan Cole, who joins as CEO following a decade running Spanish utility Iberdrola’s offshore wind business, and Samuel Leupold, currently GIG chairman of offshore wind energy, and previously with Orsted, ABB and McKinsey.

Cole stated: “This [is a] unique opportunity to lead a business that combines some of the world’s best financial and industrial expertise. From day one, we will be able to work with partners, suppliers and investors to deliver a major project pipeline that will not only provide vast quantities of clean affordable electricity but will also support thousands of green jobs.”

Dooley said he was “hugely excited” about the “dream team” of Cole and Leupold given the pair had separately established themselves “not only as leaders in this industry but true global advocates for offshore wind”.

“However, the real story of what Corio is about is that on one side you’ve got governments and communities desperate to see massive volumes of renewable energy deployed, and on the other you have this ever-growing climate change-motivated capital wanting to fund that,” said Dooley.

“But in the middle, you need the ‘magic ingredient’ and that is the capacity and expertise – and the mandate – to develop opportunities into investable projects. That’s the ‘speed limit’, how much of that capability is being brought to bear. Corio we believe will be the connector between those big forces.”

Corio’s strategy will be to take projects from origination, through development and construction, and into operation using a “long-term partnership approach”. Over 100 staff will be transferred into the new business as it begins operations in April, with plans to recruit more staff “in the coming year” for its main offices in London, England and Edinburgh, Scotland.

'New level' for floating and hydrogen

Corio will take a special interest, said Dooley, in the integration of offshore and particularly floating wind power projects with industrial-scale hydrogen production “to take both to an entirely new level”.

“There are plenty of pilot [floating wind] projects that have proved the efficacy of the technology but now it is about making it happen at commercial-scale and we want to be the heart of that – industrialisation of floating and what it can be beyond. That includes green hydrogen production,” Dooley said.

“We have to build a use-case for green hydrogen and with it get the ‘habit’ and the apparatus for it into our industrial mindset. Green hydrogen will very soon have its breakthrough in markets around the world and offshore wind will be an exceptional source of clean electrons for this.”