Joining us today is Mike Silvestrini, co-founder and managing partner of Energea, a renewable project developer and retail investment platform that is focused on emerging and frontier markets. Mike took his FIRST company, Greenskies Renewable Energy, to a nearly half-billion-dollar valuation before selling and is now focused on connecting investors to renewable energy projects and developing renewable energy around the world.

He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali, West Africa, as a small enterprise development officer. Since then, he has returned to Africa on many occasions, including several excursions to admire Africa’s incredible wildlife through his volunteer work for Big Life and to support small-scale African businesses through a U.S. State Department-led program.

In this episode, we’re discussing…

[1:42] How he started in the renewable energy platform
[4:58] Type of regulations (SEC) and type of investment he handles, accredited and non-accredited investors
[8:39] What do the investors buy?
[11:12] Most of the projects are commercial, big projects.
[12:25] How do they handle or commingle foreign investments/companies
[16:29] How different countries are receptive and allow solar power investment and how they give access to what is needed
[18:25] Other different types of renewable energy sources and their huge growth
[20:27] About Reg D. And if people are self-directed IRA’s and how they compound dividends and build wealth
[21:00] The current projects
[22:46] The minimum investment amount and the time hold period

Mike’s Top Tip’s

“I'm good at here. And as on a personal level, started investing back into solar again. And then energy came around as a way to share this asset class with more individuals because I think it's timely, that more people start to take a look at solar energy as an alternative to either bonds or real estate or crypto or stocks”
“A lot of people are overweight in various either stocks or alternatives right now, and they're looking for new stuff, new ideas that aren't wild. There's a lot of crazy stuff out there. But I think that solar energy is a very sensible asset class that needs to be part of the story for people's portfolios going forward. So that's, that's how it all started”

“What we do is we take a broad view of the global solar industry, and we try to predict where returns are going to be highest. And that's really been the art form of a solar developer. From my past, you know, for the last 15 years, we've been trying to pick the markets, kind of like the way a real estate person does”
“We get a green-lighted by the SEC, and then post that under our website so that we start aggregating capital from investors who are interested in participating. And then energy, our business manages the process of finding and identifying underwriting, buying, and then managing those solar projects that meet that investment thesis. They're fairly straightforward”

You invest in something you're buying shares of that LLC. So now you're a pro-rata shareholder, of a company in Delaware. And that company in Delaware, all it does in this world is buy projects of a particular flavor. And that flavor is what's described in the offering circuit. And it's managed by us, the company has no employees. So, we like that you're not paying for corporate operating expenses, or management teams”

“100% of the money in the holding company's bank account at the end of the month, gets disbursed pro-rata to the shareholders. It's really direct ownership of the solar assets. And then if the solar assets exceed the hurdle, which changes based off on, the different types of products we offer, and it's all described in the offering circular, then we take a rake. So, we get paid to get out there, find great projects do a great job of managing them, and get excellent returns to our investors. So that's a that's essentially the product”

“We keep all the projects of a similar type in a bucket. And then we take those buckets, and that's in our marketplace so that our customers can pick and choose, which types of investment they prefer. And the way I look at it is to do this correctly; we really try to encourage our investors to diversify within our product. So, pick some of the Brazil stuff, pick some of the Europe stuff, pick some of the US-based stuff, because we're going to make you a solar cocktail”

“We think there's a lot of great customers in Africa that have been overlooked. And we think customers in Africa need solar, more than most other markets. Because electricity is very undependable, it's unreliable. And your only other alternative is diesel generators, which are super sensitive. So, we can price pretty well there, we can make some good returns”

“A base of customers is using their retirement plan, cause retirement plans are their very nature sort of long-term, long-time horizon. And solar really aligns itself well, we have a 20-year contract, you align that with a self-directed IRA in compounding those dividends, because you can't really withdraw them anyways. So, you take those dividends and every month when we distribute them. And it's a great way to build wealth”

“I'm deeply in love with our Brazilian portfolio, to be honest with you, the US stuff, we feel like we have to have it, because our investors are American, and they want to see that opportunity there. But for me, I have the majority of my investments in my own company here are into the Brazilian assets, because it's just hard to get that type of return on such a long term basis on such a consistent basis”

Resources from Mike

ABOUT MIKE SILVESTRINI

Mike Silvestrini is a co-founder and managing partner at Energea, a U.S.- based renewable project developer and retail investment platform.

As founder and CEO of one of the largest C&I solar firms in the industry, Mike managed multiple renewable energy funds in the U.S. worth more than $500 million in aggregate, and oversaw the development of more than 400 renewable energy projects across multiple technologies and continents prior to leaving the company.

He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali, West Africa, as a small enterprise development officer. Since then, he has returned to Africa on many occasions, including several excursions to admire Africa’s incredible wildlife through his volunteer work for Big Life and to support small-scale African businesses through a U.S. State Department-led program.

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