In 2017, most of us at Baseload were working for the technology company, Climeon. Climeon had developed a way to efficiently convert low-temperature hot water into electricity. Their first customers were in the steel industry and in shipping, where utilizing waste heat could yield efficiency gains and a reduced carbon footprint. But many of us at the company had always suspected that there was great potential in a geothermal application. Then we went to Iceland, where we discovered that most of the wells contained the perfect temperature water for Climeon’s technology. The country was in need of power and we had a great local partner, but there was no capital to be found. That’s when a handful of us left Climeon to found Baseload Capital.

We knew that if we could find likeminded investors to help us fund heat power projects worldwide, we could unleash the planet’s largest renewable energy source. In 2018, we began searching for project developers in markets with significant geothermal heat power potential. The idea was to support developers with knowledge about new technologies in order to speed up project funding and implementation, add value and reduce costs, leading to more profitable projects. But we quickly realized that there were no candidates in our key markets. We had a choice: to give up on those opportunities or set up our own local power companies. We decided on the latter. The opportunities and the potential of a scalable solution to provide green baseload power was simply too great to wait for someone else to step in.

By that autumn, the first Baseload Power company was formed, with the mission to develop and operate sustainable power plants. We now have power companies operating in four countries: Japan, Taiwan and the U.S., as well as Varmaorka in Iceland. With great local teams on the ground, they have managed to get several plants up and running, and there are more in the pipeline. We are already starting to think in new ways, to incorporate entire ecosystems around our plants, and we’re forging new partnerships to add various forms of expertise. We are fast on our way to disrupting the energy sector, working as hard as we can toward our vision of a planet in balance.