Illustration: Rebecca Zisser/Axios
Alcazar Energy Partners II, a Dubai-based infrastructure fund, raised $336.6 million in a first close to invest in big renewable utilities across emerging markets.
Why it matters: China owns Alcazar and the massive amount of money raised highlights the country's push into clean energy development in the Middle East.
Details: Lack of transmission infrastructure and constrained manufacturing capacity has traditionally limited investment in big renewable energy projects in developing countries.
- Alcazar aims to address those concerns and turn the page on developing large-scale renewable projects in emerging markets.
Background: A group led by China's state-owned power company, China Three Gorges, bought Alcazar Energy Partners last fall. The deal underscored China's new path into renewable development after decades of oil-and-gas investments in Iraq and UAE.
Zoom in: As it happens, Axios' Megan Hernbroth talked last week to Noor Sweid, managing partner of Global Ventures, a VC based in Dubai, with the two discussing this very idea.