NedPower was founded in 1995 when renewable energy was still called “alternative energy” by the Niessen Brothers, Hieronymus (Jerome) and Rembrandt. Jerome had been with the IFC for some ten years financing (debt and equity) power, mining and oil and gas projects in Latin America and Asia and Rembrandt had been a commodity trader with Philip Brothers, a leading commodity broker.
Their first venture was a 20 MW (80 turbines) wind farm in India. It took NedPower circa 4 years to develop but by 1999, the wind farm was up and running (it still is). One of the first and certainly largest wind farms i India, at that time. They barely made any money on the project, but they learned a lot.
After dabbling in the European wind energy market, Jerome focused on the US market, where he developed the NedPower Mount Storm wind farm (264) in West Virgina. The project was partially built on an old strip-mine and required obtaining land leases from circa 50 landowners. The project required extensive environmental studies and consultation with the local community. It was by far the largest wind farm East of the Mississippi for a long time.
After starting a number of ventures in the US (including an artist coop) and a short return to the IFC as Principal Investment Officer (Africa), NedPower’s Principal and Founder moved to Kenya and returned to project development, first as CEO of Serengeti (then called rAREH) and then as JCM’s CEO and Head of Africa, developing renewable projects (solar, wind and hydro) of up to 80 MWs across SSA.
Jerome and his team are now applying their decades long experience in emerging markets finance, project development, construction, operations and climate finance and impact investing, to helping other developers and financiers make sound investment in a new and exciting but perilous environment.
