Ex-Orsted Executive Launches Renewable Energy Platform with US$100M

Declan Flanagan, former CEO of Orsted Onshore, has announced the launch of Bluestar Energy Capital, along with a $100 million for the development of greenfield renewable energy projects.

In addition to Flanagan, other investors include S2G Ventures and Great Bay Renewables . As part of the transaction Aaron Rudberg, COO of S2G, and Frank Getman, CEO of Great Bay, have joined Bluestar’s board of directors. Senan Murphy, former CFO of wind power pioneer Airtricity (sold to SSE and E.On) has also joined Bluestar’s board as a non-executive. The new firm will focus on the United States, Australia, and Europe.

“Our vision is to be one of the largest global investors of early-stage development capital,” commented Flanagan.

Early-stage development projects will be the primary emphasis of Bluestar’s initial phase of its business plan, with the potential to invest in building and operations projects later on.

The new company launched its first two regional development platforms after closing the funding round in North America (Nova Clean Energy) and Australia (Bluestar Energy Australia). There are currently preparations in place to launch a third platform for renewable investments in Europe.

Nova  is pursuing a greenfield project development plan, as well as opportunistic M&A across wind, solar and storage.. The Australian division will concentrate its efforts on wind, solar and storage, with a meaningful pipeline of wind projects already developed.

“We have structured Bluestar as a portfolio of distinct regional platforms based on the conviction that successful project development is a very local business. Success is about empowering regional leadership while bringing global scale and an owner’s attention to detail in managing project and market risk,” added Flanagan.

In addition to Jenn Goodwillie’s appointment as head of development at Nova, the business has hired former Orsted Onshore executive, Dennis Meany, who was elected president and board member of Bluestar.