Scaled companies
Nat has scaled five companies that sell, finance, install, and maintain solar assets. This includes Sunrun (NASDAQ: RUN), the nation’s largest residential solar company, which he co-founded in 2007.1
About Us
Helmed by
Industry Pioneers
Fairtide’s leaders have over 30 years of combined renewable energy experience as entrepreneurs, executives, investors, and policy advocates.
“Clean technologies replacing fossil commodities is a once-in-a-century economic opportunity.”
–
Nat Kreamer
Spearheading the Solar Century
Fairtide’s managing partners haven’t just harnessed the exponential growth of solar energy—they’ve helped bring it about. As industry leaders and innovators, they have created the financial tools, shaped the public policies, and scaled the solar companies that make these strategies possible.
Shaped Policies
Nat led the solar industry to secure a permanent tax credit,2 helped create tax credits for clean energy manufacturers, and make renewable energy tax credits transferable, which transformed the tax equity market.3
Created Investments
Nat’s companies pioneered the residential solar PPA,4 residential solar tax equity,5 renewable energy YieldCo,6 solar back-leveraged debt,7 and solar home improvement ABS that are now market standards.8
- Obamawhitehouse.archives.gov.
- “Scratching the ITC: How the ITC was won…Nat Kreamer,” PV Magazine, February 2016.
- “AEE Kreamer Calls on Congress to Switch Clean Energy Tax Credits,” Greentech Media, March 2020.
- “Solar will Dominate Globally, Let’s Make Sure the US Solar Industry Profits From it,” Greentech Media, March 2017.
- “SunRun gets $105 million financing from US Bancorp,” Reuters, November 2008.
- Google, Clean Power Finance set up $75MM solar fund,” San Francisco Business Journal, April 2013.
- “Morgan Stanley Brings $300 million to Residential Solar Leasing: Wall Street Giant will partner with Clean Power Finance…” Greentech Media, May 2012.
- Spruce Securitizes Debt for Energy Efficiency, Residential Solar,” Bloomberg, June 2016
Fairtide’s History
In the days of sail, commerce flowed faster and ships traversed coastal waters more safely by catching favorable tides. Nowhere was this more important than between Boston and New York, where geography and tide conspire to create powerful and complex currents.
That was until Captain George W. Eldridge developed his tidal guide to make sure mariners caught a “fair tide.” In honor of this scientific innovation, Elderidge named his home Fairtide. A century later, Nat Kreamer would spend his childhood at Fairtide.
Elderidge’s pioneering and innovative example is alive today in Nat Kreamer and Tom Foody’s work. Partners since 2011, Nat and Tom launched Fairtide to harness favorable conditions, build sustainable investment strategies, and maximize economic returns to investors.
An Experienced Partner to Institutional Investors
Working together at Clean Power Finance as well as individually as executives and advisors, Nat and Tom have helped invest and/or manage billions of dollars for corporations, banks, and private equity firms.
Nat Kreamer
Managing Partner
Nat is a solar industry pioneer and policy leader, experienced chairman and CEO, and finance innovator. He is the co-founder of SunRun (NASDAQ: RUN), the nation’s second-largest owner of solar assets. Nat personally sold the first residential solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).
As a policy leader in the energy transition, Nat has led two of the three largest industry trade associations. Under his leadership they won >$100 billion in government incentives and changed laws making it easier for Americans to use clean energy and electric vehicles.
Nat’s personal ownership in solar assets helped launch HDM Renewable Energy, where Nat is an investor. He is also an investor and board member in innovative sustainability companies, including AMP and Highland Electric Fleets.
Nat is the lifetime chairman emeritus of the national solar industry association (SEIA); President Obama named him a Champion of Change for his work in clean energy; and Forbes includes him in its Solar 100 list. He earned a Bronze Star in Afghanistan while serving in the U.S. Special Forces. Nat has a BS from Northwestern University and an MBA from Rice University.
Tom Foody
Managing Partner
An experienced investor, operator, advisor and board member, Tom has represented leading investors including Kleiner Perkins, NEA, and Goldman Sachs. He held executive leadership roles across the solar value chain, was Chief Financial Officer of Clean Power Finance, and has extensive operating experience with high-growth, late-stage ventures.
Tom brings deep capital markets execution experience across IPO, private equity, private credit and M&A. Like Nat, Tom’s personal ownership in solar assets helped launch HDM Renewable Energy, where Tom is also an investor. He holds an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, an MSE from Stanford University and a BSE from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Growing New Ventures
Nat’s experience as an entrepreneur, asset financier, and policy leader is differentiated among investors. His personal venture and growth equity portfolio includes the following businesses.
GROWTH STAGE
AMP harnesses artificial intelligence and robotic automation to capture more of the value in waste.
GROWTH STAGE
HDM helps consumers and businesses save more with clean solar power.
GROWTH STAGE
Highland Electric Fleets makes it simple and affordable for communities to electrify their school bus fleets.
VENTURE STAGE
Formic makes automation affordable to American manufacturers through robots-as-a-service.
VENTURE STAGE
Charge automates commercial-scale solar construction to help scale renewable energy production.
VENTURE STAGE
Synop provides electric vehicle charging and energy management software to fleet managers.
Pioneering Product
Only about 40,000 homes installed solar in the first 40 years of the industry.1 Nat’s invention of the residential solar power purchase agreement enabled 1 million homes to go solar in the next decade.2 Today, more than 4.5 million American homes are run on the sun.3 Most of them use the power purchase agreements created and first sold by Nat.
- “US Surpasses 5 Million Solar Installations,” Environment America Research and Policy Center, May 2024.
- “US Residential Solar Financing 2014-2018,” Greentech Media Research, June 2014.
- Solar Energy Industries Association 2024.
Innovative Financing
At Clean Power Finance, Nat and Tom developed innovative institutional financing for tax-advantaged solar assets. They pioneered the YieldCo business model with Google,1 executed the first back-leveraged debt facility for solar with Morgan Stanley and Zions Bank,2 and completed the first asset-backed securitization of solar home improvement loans with Citibank.3 Investors have used Nat’s and Tom’s innovations to finance tens of billions of renewable energy projects in the public and private markets.
- “Google, Clean Power Finance set up $75MM solar fund,” San Francisco Business Journal, April 2013.
- “Morgan Stanley Brings $300 million to Residential Solar Leasing: Wall Street Giant will partner with Clean Power Finance…” Greentech Media, May 2012.
- “Spruce Securitizes Debt for Energy Efficiency, Residential Solar,” Bloomberg, June 2016
Building Category-Defining Companies
Nat has helped build three industry leaders: SunRun for residential solar, Highland for fleet vehicle electrification, and AMP for circular economy technology.
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