Macquarie Capital advances Global Energy Technology effort with senior appointment

• Greg Callman joins from global energy-focused business development role at Tesla
• Will lead a global team across battery storage, distributed energy, electric mobility
• Appointment advances Macquarie’s leadership position in clean energy solutions

Macquarie Capital, the corporate advisory, capital markets and principal investment arm of Macquarie Group, today announced the appointment of Greg Callman as Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Energy Technology to lead the firm’s efforts related to energy storage and distributed solutions.

Mr. Callman joins Macquarie Capital from Tesla, where he was Global Director of Business Development and Market Entry for Energy Products. At Tesla, Mr. Callman developed the commercial approach that grew the company’s US storage business from pilot projects to a portfolio that today includes a 52MWh PV-paired battery that provides dispatchable renewables on Kauai, an 80MWh standalone battery that provides peaking capacity in Southern California, and the first fleet commercial/industrial systems to combine front and behind the meter applications.  

Mr. Callman also established Tesla's energy storage businesses in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand from the ground up. In total, he has been instrumental to more than 500MWh of projects across residential, commercial and utility segments, including landmark projects such as a 129MWh system in South Australia that helps to stabilize the grid. In addition to storage, Mr. Callman drove the development of Tesla’s Supercharger business in both North America and Europe, which has enabled the deployment of 10,000 charging stalls globally.  

Based in San Francisco, Mr. Callman will develop projects and products globally on a wide range of energy solutions, including battery storage, microgrids, electric vehicles, distributed energy, and consumer energy. His appointment comes during a time of rapid innovation and commercialization of energy storage and distributed solutions, fueled by increases in energy consumption, a growing demand for renewable power, and the accelerating adoption of new technologies such as electric vehicles and home batteries.

“Macquarie Capital is an established leader in advising and investing with companies offering innovative energy solutions, and storage will play a pivotal role in the future of energy,” said Michael Silverton, Head of Macquarie Capital Americas. “Greg is an authority in energy solutions with a track record combining innovation and operational and commercial success.”

Macquarie Capital has also driven innovation in energy storage. In 2017, Macquarie Capital, Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) and CIT closed a first-of-its-kind project, financing of battery-based energy storage systems. The financing backed a 50MW fleet of behind-the-meter, battery storage systems located in grid-constrained pockets of the West Los Angeles Basin. Macquarie and AMS have been jointly developing the portfolio. Macquarie Capital also invested in the first solar-to-battery project structure in South Korea to receive private investment. The project combined an existing 3MW solar farm and the construction of a 6.5MW hour energy storage system.

“Storage has a transformational role to play through the next decade, including shifting control to consumers and businesses on both the availability and cost of power” said Mark Dooley, Global Head of Green Energy at Macquarie Capital. “The addition of Greg Callman will help position us at the front of that transformation, better enabling us to deliver fast-evolving financial solutions to clients and partners in a rapidly changing industry.”

Storage is one element of Macquarie’s leading global renewables franchise. The firm is the leading investor in renewable generation assets across Europe, Asia, the Americas and Australia, which was furthered by the firm’s 2017 acquisition of Green Investment Bank from the UK Government, now called the Green Investment Group, a dedicated green investment business that has led over $20 billion of investment into green infrastructure assets and projects. Recent notable transactions of GIG include the development and construction of the 650MW Markbygden ETT wind farm in Northern Sweden, the largest single-site onshore wind farm in Europe, and the development and construction of the world’s largest new build biomass power station in the UK.