Today’s ESG Updates:
- Thames Water Closes in on £16bn Rescue Deal: Thames Water is edging closer to a multibillion-pound rescue deal with its lenders that would keep the ailing utility out of temporary public ownership.
- Rising Salinity and Heat Push Basra to Grow Date Palms in the Lab: Iraqi scientists in Basra are using tissue culture labs to mass-produce heat- and salt-tolerant, disease-free date palm seedlings.
- Jupiter Power Secures $500 Million to Build Battery Storage Across the US: the funding was upped from $225 million in September 2024 to support procurement and construction across its US pipeline.
- Enfinity Starts Solar Project to Supply Clean Energy to Microsoft in Italy: the project supports Microsoft’s 2030 100/100/0 clean energy goals and plans local investment and job creations in Lazio, Emilia-Romagna, and Basilicata.
Thames Water closes in on £16bn rescue deal
Thames Water is nearing a £16bn rescue that would keep it out of temporary public ownership, with creditors holding £13bn of its £20bn debt aiming for an in‑principle deal with Ofwat (Office of Water Services) by mid‑February. Lenders are expected to take “haircuts” of up to 30% on Class A debt, with more than £13bn in value written off, in return for at least 10% of the recapitalised company’s equity and an increased equity injection above the previously planned £3.15bn. Access to the second £1.5bn tranche of a £3bn emergency funding package depends on sealing this agreement.
The London & Valley Water consortium plans £20.5bn of infrastructure and service spending over five years, has pledged no dividends until post‑turnaround/listing, and no extra bill rises beyond Ofwat‑agreed increases, and not to sell before 2030. Regulators warn, “There’s still no guarantee this gets done”, as the deal requires approvals from Ofwat, the Environment Agency, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, UK environment secretary Emma Reynolds, and the courts. Furthermore, the deal remains subject to gaps over financial and other terms.
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Further reading: Thames Water closes in on £16bn rescue deal with lenders
Rising salinity and heat push Basra to grow date palms in the lab
Iraqi scientists near Basra are using tissue-culture labs and greenhouses to revive date palm orchards devastated by war, land loss and a “saline tongue” of seawater driven inland by reduced Tigris–Euphrates flows.
Operational since 2023, the Nakheel Al Basra can now produce up to 250,000 disease-free seedlings a year with success rates of about 99%, turning a single palm that once yielded only three to four offshoots into “thousands of offshoots,” according to director Mohammed Abdulrazzaq.
Seedlings are heat-hardened from 25 °C up to about 52°C, and salinity is raised to 6,000–8,000 ppm, so plants can survive Basra’s summers and brackish water, researcher Ismail Sadiq said.
Farmer Faysal al-Khazraji reported that all 100 tissue-culture palms were thriving, compared with just 25 of 100 conventionally propagated trees. Basra, which once had 13 million of Iraq’s 32 million palms, now has around three million, with tissue-culture trees exceeding 100,000 and making up over 15% of varieties in some districts.
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Further reading: Rising salinity and heat push Basra to grow date palms in the lab
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Jupiter Power secures $500 million to build battery storage across the US
Texas-based utility-scale battery storage developer Jupiter Power was acquired by BlackRock Alternatives in 2022 and secured a $500 million Senior Secured Green Revolving Loan and Letter of Credit Facility to advance the US BESS (Battery Energy Storage Systems) pipeline, upsizing a $225 million facility closed in September 2024.
The company has nearly 8,000 MWh of projects operating, under construction or under contract, and a development pipeline of more than 12,000 MW across the US.
The facility was arranged by a syndicate comprising Barclays, HSBC, ING, Société Générale and SMBC.
Jupiter Power CFO Jesse Campbell said the upsizing “underscores the confidence our banking partners have in our ability to continue delivering high-quality BESS projects with long-term contracted cash flows” and will fund new BESS procurement and “numerous projects proceeding into construction.”
HSBC’s Paul Snow said the expanded facility reflects Jupiter’s platform strength and their “shared commitment to scaling critical energy storage infrastructure and support energy security across the United States.”
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Further reading: GlassPoint Raises $20 Million to Decarbonise Industrial Heat with Solar Tech
Enfinity starts solar project to supply clean energy to Microsoft in Italy
Enfinity Global has started commercial operations at a new 33.8 MW solar photovoltaic (solar PV) plant in Italy, with the first project delivered under a series of PPAs (Power Purchase Agreements) with Microsoft as part of a broader deal covering up to 366 MW of renewable capacity to support Microsoft’s 100/100/0 clean energy goal for 2030.
Founded in 2019, Enfinity owns a 39.3 GW global portfolio of renewable generation and storage projects, with an additional 37 GW under negotiation in the U.S., and has contracted 808 MW of solar PPAs in Italy over the last two years.
Effinity CEO Carlos Domenech said, “We are delighted to provide solar energy electricity to a global technology leader like Microsoft,” adding that the company aims to offer “reliable, value-added renewable energy solutions” while acting as a responsible community member. Enfinity and Microsoft also plan investments and job creation in host regions, including in Lazio, Emilia-Romagna, and Basilicata.
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Further readings: Enfinity starts solar project to supply clean energy to Microsoft in Italy
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of impakter.com — In the Cover Photo: Thames Water manhole cover. Cover Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
