Renewables Investing with Nick Dimmock

Within 10 years more than half your portfolios will have featured renewables investing. On our 150th Episode, we have Nick Dimmock from 350 PPM as our guest. He is an expert in renewables investing.

But first…

An Announcement

An announcement was made at the beginning of the Podcast. Graham has become a Granddad! His son Luke’s wife LeAnn gave birth to Eliza on Monday 12th November in Halifax, West Yorkshire.

Now back to the show!

Thinking about Eliza, it rather makes the appearance of the guest we had co-incidentally lined up – Nick Dimmock – even more relevant. That’s because Nick runs 350 PPM.

What does 350PPM mean?

You could argue if you don’t know, you don’t get it.

350 PPM stands for 350 parts per million. It’s a proclamation. To reduce the amount of CO2 to 350 parts per million. That’s the HIGHEST level of CO2 to promote a stable climate.

But it’s getting worse…

Currently, we are at 410 PPM. That is why we are getting all this strange weather. More greenhouse gas in the atmosphere absorbs more heat from the Sun. Every day the Sun blasts us with huge amounts of energy.

You wouldn’t believe. The Sun provides enough energy in an hour for all of our needs for a whole year.

Therefore a relatively small change in the level of CO2 and greenhouse gases, means that the earth absorbs more energy, that manifests itself often as heat. As a result we get this strange inclement weather.

More rain. More storms.

This ultimately will lead to rising sea levels.

So is President Trump Correct – there is no global warming?

Nick points to the 100,000 scientists in the world who’s jobs are to prove within the 99% level of probability that climate change is man-made, versus a man without a degree.

Make your own mind up.

And the growth in PPM is 3-5 per year. We really don’t want to wait a generation to bloody wake up, do we? By then Trump will be long gone and Eliza hopefully will be in her mid-twenties. She and all children deserve a future worth living.

Here’s what he said in a 60 Minutes interview in October 2018.

“It might change back”

Copyright CBS

Why President Trump Will Like 350 PMM

One word. CAPITALIST.

The environmental sector is no longer the preserve of eco-warriors from the 1970s and venture philanthropists, it is actually the best sector to invest in for the the coming 20-30 years.

The Kyoto Protocol was the first global treaty in 2007. Nick could not believe how much money early investors were making from environmental projects off the back of Kyoto.

He’d completed an MBA and got a job on the Emissions Desk at Tullett Prebon

Super Normal Profits

He was amazed with the ability for companies and accreditors to make super normal profits. In 2012, the Protocol blew out, countries could not agree a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. But, another treaty was on its way.

It will be a dystopian world if we keep going in the same direction. The effects of NOT DEALING with the problem will be catastrophic.

Capitalist. The Paris Agreement was signed April 2016. Once again. There are super natural profits to be made. Because the world has determined this is the right approach, regardless of the President’s view.

Why the UK is in a good position

• We have a strong legal system.
• Trust out in the developing world
• We are in a very good position to capitalise from renewables investing.

If we don’t take action it is likely the word will lose up to 20% of its GDP.

Capitalist. There is money to be made.

An Environmental Revolution

We need to re-tool ALL of the energy generation systems. Around the world. And move from FOSSIL FUELS to renewables.

The next step is to incentivise ENERGY EFFICIENCY in all of our homes through insulations.

Nick mentioned ECO1.

Nano-insulation

Combined, the market is comfortably over 10 million homes in the UK. 350 PPM estimate that treating just 166k homes – a small fraction of the markets listed above – is needed to make this a billion-pound industry (assumes cost of £6000 per house).  This is why investors should be looking at this area.

There is a large amount of work to do in a small amount of time.This is going to be incentivised by Governments around the world based on the commitments they have made to the Paris Agreement.

Someone has to pay, investors can make money

Global GDP is improved. People have jobs. Investors can make money. If you harvest FREE resources, like the sun, sea, wind etc input costs are almost zero.

“There is just a phenomenal amount for INVESTORS to make”
Nick Dimmock, Investor Director, 350PPM

Renewables Investing – But what about storage?

For every listener of The Next 100 Days. If you are an investor, check out Storelectric. Do your own research, take advice, but YOU MUST check it out.

Countries and Governments around the world. In order to ‘get green’ for the LEAST level of investment, a lot have been choosing WIND.

Wind is relatively cheap. But it comes with a problem. It is incredibly intermittent. You cannot base your industrial day based on when the wind blows.

You see this manifested in electricity prices. It’s pretty stable. Around £35 per Megawatt hour. In the last year, we have seen a windy night price of MINUS £25 pMWh, to over a £1000 on a winters day where there is no wind or sun.

Utility Scale Compressed Air Storage System

Back in 2014, Nick met Mark Howitt CTO and Co-founder of Storelectric at an energy Awards Dinner in 2014. The Yorkshireman in Nick wanted to make things happen. So he got an analyst in to look at the idea. They invested.

NAM , Exxon and Shell, the biggest energy company in Netherlands. They had a challenge for the best utility scale energy storage system. For every 1 MW of wind, you’ll need 1/3 MW of storage. So, the storage industry is going to mushroom like crazy!

Estimates of £20 trillion up to 2050. Storelectric won the NAM challenge. NAM are considering a plan to invest €50m into Storelectric.

There is HUGE interest in this sector.

 

Is Storelectric going to be a UNICORN?

It is currently valued around £15m. People are starting to talk about Storelectric as a potential unicorn. So that would see their value rocket 67x.

How can an investor back the winners?

350PPM tries to identify those companies who can win from the Paris Agreement. Nick has great experience with Project Developers. he chooses project developers to invest in, with a moderate amount of technology. Either it works or there is a better version. Under the Paris Agreement, renewable investing will have a range of 100,000 companies.

The rising tide will lift all boats.

Their process identifies whether they know what they are talking about. Plus in the last 3 years few people have been investing. So acquisition costs are low. This is the sector that will be talked about on CNBC for the next 5 years.

The Beauty of a Capitalist Solution

There is no gold rush to worn out mines.

Nationally Intended Contributions to Emission Reductions – you see what every country has committed to up to 2025.

There is a Global Climate Change Conference in Katowice, which will discuss penalties for those countries that FAIL to meet targets. There will also be the opportunities to trade assets between countries, all so we stay below the 2 degrees warming as seen by the Paris Agreement.

So, 350PPM is looking for the best renewables investing projects for high net worth investors.

How will YOUR investment portfolio change?

The management of institutional investors have pushed their fund managers to invest in ESG businesses. Being in Fossil Fuels will be hugely risky.

 

Are you interested?

He has curated a number of links about the environmental sector.

Nick referred to Professor Lord Stern. Listen to this excerpt from his 2018 Fulbright Lecture.

 

Lord Stern convinced Nick about renewables investing. Lord Stern believes there will be $90tn of investment will be needed over a few years.

Growth will rocket.

And there aren’t other solutions?

Nick looked at geo-engineering. Mass engineering of the world to create a mechanism to reduce the amount of sun, or for us to absorb CO2. The number one solution in 2008 was to fill rockets full of mirrors, to reflect the suns rays back into space. No that idea has been superseded by filling the atmosphere with sulphur. Pea soups.

Madness, because there are better renewables investing opportunities.

CO2 absorption. Injecting CO2 into Bauxite, but costs more than $120 per tonne. Too high.

Any silver bullet would come with a great price. Governments will tax us. If investors don’t risk their capital, the Government will need to.

Executive Summary

The executive summary is we will pay for the environmental revolution. The only question is whether you wish to invest in the changes that could give you a remarkable increase in your wealth?

Investors should do exceedingly well. Be in it for the money. And most investments are covered by tax relief schemes, zero 0% CGT, loss relief if needed, IHT tax relief.

Contact 350 PPM

Call 350 PPM 0203 151 1 350