RockCreek is investing in companies accelerating solar, energy storage, EVs, and broadband connectivity in Illinois. These companies provide attractive returns while building smarter, more sustainable, and more inclusive communities and creating jobs.
At RockCreek, we have many partners seeking investments with strong returns that also generate positive impacts on communities. Investing in the energy transition is one attractive way to do that—it is often possible to help a community benefit from the energy transition while also improving the local economy. RockCreek has been investing in Illinois for nearly two decades. Our team is excited to highlight three recent investments in the state and share thoughts on how investing can both generate growth and positively improve local communities.
Some examples of recent investments:
Nexamp: Nexamp is the country’s largest community solar provider. Community solar democratizes solar allowing anyone receiving an electric bill to access solar benefits (i.e., cost savings and environmental benefits). Nexamp caught our attention earlier this year when it announced that it would open a new headquarters in Chicago helping to bring over $2 billion of investments in solar to the state. We participated in their recent $520 million raise.
Crosstown Fiber: Smart cities—those with smart homes, smart grids, smart phones, smart cars, and IoT solutions making industry more efficient—require ubiquitous connectivity. However, broadband access in Chicago has historically been constrained and confined to select neighborhoods. Lombard, IL-based Crosstown Fiber is changing that by building a new fiber optic network designed to enable high-speed internet access throughout Chicago, including schools, data centers, enterprises, government agencies, and residents.
Renewance: We previously shared thoughts on our investment in Elmhurst, IL-based Renewance, which is helping to optimize industrial batteries that are crucial to EVs, renewable energy projects, and the broader energy transition.
The real winners are the communities served by these companies. Nexamp has 75 community solar projects that are either operational or being developed in Illinois, which will provide 300MW of energy, or roughly enough power for 50,000 average households in the state. Nexamp’s customer base includes many low- and moderate-income customers, who are now able to access solar for the first time. Crosstown Fiber serves hundreds of schools throughout the city of Chicago which educate hundreds of thousands of students. Renewance is enabling industrial EVs (e.g., trucks and school buses) and renewable energy projects (including community solar) that are reliant on large batteries to operate as efficiently and optimally as possible.
Green job seekers will also benefit. These businesses are employing hundreds of people while creating thousands of jobs in the field to build, service, and operate energy transition assets.
An attractive investment growth story. Energy needs and energy storage markets are large and growing rapidly, and Nexamp and Renewance are seeing growth from these tailwinds. Crosstown Fiber is providing connectivity in a constrained bandwidth market—just as AI and cloud applications are making it more essential than ever.
Illinois is an attractive market to become an energy transition hub. Illinois passed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act in 2021 and the Reimagining Energy and Vehicles in Illinois Act in 2023, which layer on top of federal incentives (e.g., those from the Inflation Reduction Act) to act as accelerants for the energy transition in the region. Illinois also has one of the best community solar policies in place and Chicago is one of the largest markets for data centers and the tech industry. The city attracts talent, including through its leading technical universities like the Illinois Institute of Technology, colleges, and training programs, which is essential to fueling growth.
A supportive local utility in Exelon. Having a supportive utility is essential to the success of the energy transition. ComEd, Exelon’s local operating company in the Chicago region, has been a leader in positively impacting communities in their service area, including by enabling the energy transition. RockCreek partners with Exelon on the Community Impact Capital Fund (CICF), which participated in some of these investments.