Hull Street doubles inaugural effort to close energy fund on $1.1bn

DC-based Hull Street Energy has closed its second North America-focused fund, reaching its hard-cap of $1.1 billion.

Hull Street Energy Partners II, which was launched in the middle of last year, follows the group’s debut fund, which raised about $500 million upon final close in May 2019. Fund II is a continuation of the strategy, which “targets investments in the North American power sector as the economy electrifies and decarbonises”, according to a statement from the firm.

“We target renewable resources and traditional power sources, which we think will be critical to the evolution of the grid as it decarbonises,” explained Matthew Willis, partner at Hull Street Energy.

The fund made an investment in January in SunGrid Solutions, a battery storage services company. Hull Street also announced a deal two weeks ago to acquire the remaining interest in the 240MW Crockett Cogeneration natural gas facility, California. It originally bought a majority interest in the facility last December. Overall, the firm manages 53 power generation stations, providing more than 1.2GW of renewable, gas-fired and dual-fuelled generation capacity.

“The market continues to evolve quickly. Energy storage is becoming an increasingly important part of it,” added Willis. “Our strategy is largely designed to track where the grid goes. As the system progresses, so will our mix of investments.”

The fundraising process saw Hull Street pick up commitments from endowments, foundations, insurance companies, consultants, pension plans, funds of funds and family offices. One substantial commitment of $200 million came from the Texas Municipal Retirement System.

Hull Street Energy was founded in 2014 by Sarah Wright, who was previously a co-founding partner at Energy Capital Partners from 2005.