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Newheat raised €30 million to develop 100% sustainable renewable heat

This unprecedented amount for the company illustrates the strong interest of investors in the renewable heat sector.

Newheat, a supplier of renewable heat and the French leader in solar heat production, has announced the raising of €30 million from SWEN Capital Partners, via its SWIFT 2 strategy and its historical partners: Noria, Bpifrance through its FIEE fund, the Etchart Group, and the holding company Holdheat.

Renewable heat is a key energy transition issue that is "finally receiving the attention it deserves." Heat is the leading energy use in France, accounting for 45% of our final energy needs. Decarbonising heat is central and crucial for consumers' energy mix and societies' energy independence. Until recently, this subject was a real "blind spot" in the French and European energy policy.

The last two years have been marked by a growing awareness of the issue, linked in particular to extreme climatic events on every continent, major tension over energy supply, and exploding energy market prices. Against this backdrop, public decision-makers seem determined to speed up the transition in the heat sector. This shift has also been observed among private decision-makers, with growing interest from investors in renewable heat. In particular, Newheat has seen a very sharp increase in business over the past two years.

Newheat extends its positioning as an integrated operator and its know-how to all solutions for the recovery and production of renewable heat. In this context, Newheat is announcing that it can now offer solutions combining all renewable heat recovery and production solutions, which use in each project is determined by a precise merit order based on environmental friendliness, taking into account CO2 emissions, respect for biodiversity, the availability of resources, and local project constraints.

To deploy this vision, the company has built up in-house technical expertise since its inception, enabling it to design, build, and operate "made-to-measure" decarbonisation solutions, tailored to each individual case and optimised for each of its customers.

The raising €30m reflects the clear acceleration in the company’s business and the new interest in the sector. The vast majority of the funds raised will be used to invest directly in heat plant projects developed by the company. 

Olivier Aubert, Managing Director at SWEN Capital Partners, comments:

“We are convinced that tomorrow’s energy mix will include renewable heat. We are delighted to support Newheat in achieving the ambitious targets they have set themselves.”

Hugues Defréville, co-founder and CEO of Newheat, said:

“We are delighted to complete this transaction with our historic investors and to welcome SWEN Capital Partners as shareholders. The confidence of this major player in the financing of energy transition gives us both recognition and a lever for accelerating the development of our business”,

He added: 

“2023 is a pivotal year in the energy transition in Europe and France. The challenge of decarbonising heat is a major one. It accounts for almost half of the energy consumed in France, and is still largely dependent on imported fossil fuels. According to a forecast to 2035 produced by a platform of associations representing local authorities, renewable heat production should reach 284 TWh in 2035, covering almost 60% of needs."

SOURCE: Newheat Press Release