Anderson Lee

Interesting dataset of RE cost of capital across the world
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

10 out of 13 grants awarded for domestic Heat Pump manufacturing (the IRA’s Heat Pump Defense Production Act Program) are also listed. 🔌⚡

Awards for Gradient, Mitsubishi, and York International appear to be safe.

In 2 Years of Gaza Genocide, Sunday Shows on NBC, ABC and CNN Have Not Featured a Single Palestinian Guest In a microcosm of the U.S. coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, since Oct. 7, 2023, influential Sunday news shows have not seen fit to book any Palestinians.

For 2 years of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, not one Palestinian voice has been featured on NBC, ABC or CNN’s Sunday shows.

@ahjohnson.bsky.social writes about how the U.S. media has debated Palestinians’ annihilation without letting a single Palestinian speak.

inthesetimes.com/article/gaza...

China's central bank targeted lending facilities as part of industrial policy
www.cepweb.org/wp-content/u...

James van Geelen on the Next Phase of the AI Buildout Podcast Episode · Odd Lots · 10/06/2025 · 39m

Good background here from @tracyalloway.bsky.social and @weisenthal.bsky.social about why tech and AI companies are backing away from net zero commitments: there is no way to build Machine God quickly without natural gas.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/j...

"At its peak, the RFC’s balance sheet dwarfed the combined balance sheets of Wall Street banks... By 1934, the RFC held voting rights in thousands of American firms and was the single largest investor in the country"

Using reasonable assumptions, "a $10 billion housing construction fund could generate somewhere in the order of 300,000 units by
leveraging $40 billion in private capital. A $50 billion housing construction fund could generate more than 1.5 million units."
publicenterprise.org/wp-content/u...

The first point is an underrated reason for global south countries to scale renewables: by reducing fossil fuel imports dependence, their balances of payments improve, improve FX reserves, reduce inflationary pressures from energy imports and FX pressure. A virtuous cycle for further development.

Korea’s battery materials maker Enchem scraps $143 mn US plant plan - KED Global Enchem Co., a South Korean battery materials maker, has scrapped its plan to invest $143 million to build a plant in the US due to the protracted downturn in t

Trump kills EV tax credits > reduces EV demand > Ford EV business struggles > delays in the JV battery plant > $140mm electrolyte plant in Tennessee is now cancelled
www.kedglobal.com/batteries/ne...

China Road Trip Exposes List of Uninvestable Assets in the West Venture capitalists in clean tech are starting to say out loud what they’ve suspected for a while: China’s dominance has left key sectors in the West uninvestable.

"China’s model relies on 'a lot of state power, a lot of consumer power, but not very much financial investor benefit'"
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

India’s first externally credit enhanced green bond issuance is guaranteed by GuarantCo GuarantCo, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), has provided a partial credit guarantee (65 per cent) for an up to INR 6.7 billion (c. USD 76.5 million) first green bond issuan...

Through GuarantCo's partial credit guarantee (65%) of a green bond issuance by a renewable energy developer, the bond credit rating increased four notches to AA+
guarantco.com/news/indias-...

"the largest banks in aggregate reported more fees from green deals than fossil fuel deals. In other words, the banks that 'bet' on the low-carbon transition netted more fees (USD613mn) from it than the banks that bet against it (USD544mn)."
anthropocenefii.org/blog/the-box...

"Argentina has also long struggled to generate the foreign exchange needed to rebuild reserves and repay external debts ...a strong peso — intended to be an inflation anchor — has led to a deterioration in Argentina’s trade accounts and an erosion of Argentina’s reserves."
www.ft.com/content/5f4b...

Opinion | Democrats Are in Crisis. Eat-the-Rich Populism Is the Only Answer.

"It’s a simple recipe, really: a scorching economic message delivered by political outsiders standing up to the powerful. The villains in this narrative are the elites at the top of a broken system ... Going back to a Bernie-2016-style campaign"
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/o...

A Private Equity Giant Took Over African Hospitals. Then the Complaints Rolled In TPG told investors — including the World Bank, the Gates Foundation and Bono — that it would expand access to health care. Whistleblowers say it put profit ahead of patient safety.

TPG, the IFC, Gates and Bono trying doing well by doing good in healthcare. You won't believe what happened next.

A really good read: analyzing the different sides of Bidenomics, what worked well, and presenting a vision forward.

Many good insights: "the capital stock and the capital stack of the economy largely define what jobs there are, and the kinds of goods and services that can be made and how."

Eye of Sauron pivots from Brasilia to Seoul

*TRUMP: SEEMS LIKE A PURGE OR REVOLUTION GOING ON IN S. KOREA
*TRUMP ON S. KOREA: WE CAN’T HAVE THAT AND DO BUSINESS THERE

Africa Is Buying a Record Number of Chinese Solar Panels Energy-starved countries on the continent have reluctantly turned to coal and gas for decades. Cheap Chinese solar panels are now finally changing the calculus.

Africa Is Buying a Record Number of Chinese #SolarPanels - www.wired.com/story/africa... "Chad has imported enough solar panels to replace their country’s entire current power generation capacity." amazingly good news #renewables

Who is against building solar and wind energy?
www.pewresearch.org/science/2024...
www.mcgrawcenter.org/stories/acro...

Several interesting remarks from banking professionals in this workshop on how banks actually engage with their clients on net zero.

It was under chatham house rule but I'm sure @ilmi.bsky.social was nodding emphatically on the 2nd point 😅
ccsi.columbia.edu/content/reth...

Very interesting conversation, many insightful remarks.
"insurance is behaving as the adaptation policymaker of last resort."
"Actors in the financial industry who are doing adaptation 'correctly' are basically speculators sucking us dry."

Crazy there's not even a mention to Gaza or Israel on Samantha Power's exit interview with CFR.

In the FP interview, this is her answer to the question: "you wrote in your book 'my only regret is that I don't work at the State Department, so I can quit to protest policy.' So why didn't you quit?"

Housing experience in Korea includes massive supply of multi-family apartments but housing affordability is still an intractable issue. Likely better than many counterfactuals. Unclear if supply is enough to meet demand. Would be good to include Korea when comparing against US, Vienna, New Zealand.

Tesla Finances vs. BYD Finances — Nonsense & Myths Long Out Of Date - CleanTechnica Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe. BYD has been an electric vehicle leader for the past decade+. Tesla got much more attention for its leadership, and I think r...

BYD gross margin is around 20% while Tesla is 16-17%
cleantechnica.com/2025/07/14/t...

Investors rage over Vietnam’s alleged breach of power contracts Cuts to renewable energy subsidies risks country’s credibility and power shortages, state utility warns

RE developers fear that retroactive changes to above-market feed-in tariffs in Vietnam will "restrict the developers’ cash flow, delayed maintenance, missed loan obligations or even bankruptcies". They are planning to "take legal action against the utility, including international arbitration"

"[Brazil] would initiate a blended finance fund to mobilize private capital for the state, rather than for private owners [...] the merit of this initiative is that it appropriates the language and logic of derisking without privatizing, instead aiming to direct resources to public authorities."

"who benefits from an electricity shortage and the resulting high prices? ... It is the incumbent utilities that own the fleet of aging coal-fired power plants, which are struggling to compete with new clean energy projects. If cheap clean energy is allowed to enter, they will make less money."

Only China's green hydrogen cost comes close to brown hydrogen

Green hydrogen production cost increased from $3-6/kg to $5-7/kg in 2024 due to costs in electrolyzer installation, clean electricity, financing, plant design adjustments needed to qualify for tax credit. Electrolyzer installation cost in 55% higher than predicted
www.canarymedia.com/articles/hyd...