Musa Collidge-Asad, Green Finance, DC
Musa Collidge-Asad is Chief Investment Officer at Inclusive Prosperity Capital and lives in Washington, D.C
Why is clean energy important to you? Energy improvements are essential to solving protracted global environmental, health and socio-economic development challenges.
What’s your proudest accomplishment in clean energy? My proudest accomplishment so far must be changing the nature and scale of clean energy investments in emerging markets. Taking my prior international careers, and current U.S. focus on supporting entrepreneurial and technology initiatives across clean energy/tech I helped to create a large-scale global photovoltaic initiative that transformed renewable energy adoption in emerging markets to a new zinc-based energy storage venture that is now scaling across the U.S., and other established markets.
What did you do before entering clean energy? Working on renewable energy has been a common theme throughout my career, initially with the World Bank Group and more recently in the green banking space, as well as the clean tech and clean energy venture ecosystem.
How did you first get introduced to clean energy? During my initial career with the World Bank Group and Global Environment Facility, which included team and leadership roles across an array of large-scale environmental financing initiatives.
How does clean energy impact your community? Clean energy investments are part of an overall strategy in MD and the broader DMV region to bring about environmental and economic benefits for communities across the region.
What is something you wish more people knew about your job? I advise my organization on capital investments and develop new financial structures that help low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities gain access to clean energy financing. IPC is a spinoff of the highly successful CT Green Bank, which has deployed $2B for clean energy projects. IPC is now helping to scale similar financing products with a focus on LMI communities nationally.
Why should Congress invest in clean energy jobs, not fossil fuel jobs? Engineers and technicians in traditional energy are well-trained and well-placed to join the transition; with a modest degree of re-training and training, including on-the-job, clean energy jobs will continue to grow and provide ample professional opportunities for those in the energy and other industries writ large.