Mario Fernandez
Former Head, Breakthrough Energy Catalyst. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
investorexecutiveoperatorbreakthroughenergy.org ↗
Mario Fernandez formerly led Breakthrough Energy's Catalyst program, funding and de-risking first-of-a-kind commercial-scale climate technology projects. With over two decades of infrastructure and structured finance experience, including as Managing Director at Macquarie Group, he orchestrated project financing for clean energy companies like Infinium, Rondo Energy, and INERATEC.
2shows
2appearances
29statements
4resolved
2supported
2contradicted
50%fully supported
1said about them ↓ Everything Mario Fernandez said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Fernandez: Climate startups succeed by deploying technology themselves, not licensing
“What we found looking at over 300 projects, 350 projects in the past couple of years, is the fact that the companies that actually deploy their own technology and follow that path Are the ones that get to success. There are companies that have spent two or thr…”
Fernandez: Large EPC firms stopped offering lump sum turnkey contracts post-COVID
“The reality is the EPC CapEx world changed dramatically after, after COVID, right? Things that used to be very secured, large scale EPC companies that used to be able to give you a, you know, lump sum turnkey contract are just not doing that anymore in, in con…”
Fernandez: FOAK scaling is limited by technical risk skills, not capital
“Our contention is that capital is an issue, but the biggest issue is the skill set that is required to be able to help the companies see a risk and really assess the risk of that big construction operation of first of a kind.”
Fernandez: $70B infrastructure funds hold 15-year zero-loss records across all projects
“There is 70, 60, seventy billion dollar infrastructure funds that have a 15 year track record that have never lost money on any project they've invested in.”
Fernandez: Climate Startups Succeed by Deploying Tech Directly, Not Licensing
“What we found looking at over 300 projects, 350 projects in the past couple of years, is the fact that the companies that actually deploy their own technology and follow that path
Are the ones that get to success. There are companies that have spent two or thr…”
Fernandez: Skill shortage, not capital, is the biggest FOAK bottleneck
“My, our contention is that capital is an issue, but the biggest issue is the skill set that is required to be able to help the companies see a risk and really assess the risk of that big construction operation of first of a kind.”
Fernandez: FOAK project investors require six-plus months of demo runtime
“At the end of the day, the investors that come in at the Series C, Series D, you know, most of the time funding or partially funding first of a kind projects, they really want to see six months or more, or performance.”
Fernandez: Startups risk failure by fixing offtake prices before FEED engineering
“Many times Off-takes are priced in a way before engineering, you know, failed one, failed two, engineering have been done, and it's based on optimistic CapEx assumptions. Now, when the companies go through the engineering process, and they actually get to a fe…”
Fernandez: FOAK climate projects cannot secure project-level debt
“As far as debt goes, we haven't seen it. We've seen people be able to raise debt at the corporate level via, via venture debt or via corporate debt. Now, those are very low leverage numbers, right? They're not the 80, 95% that, you know, you will get in solar.…”
Fernandez: Climate tech scaling requires sequential 5-20x demonstration and FOAK steps
“The way we propose to do this is, you know, that company has to follow a path towards that de-risking, and that path in our, ah, experience is you go from a pilot to a five to 20 x demonstration project, and then you go to another 10, 10, 20 times, ah, first o…”
Fernandez: FOAK Project Investors Require at Least Six Months of Demo Data
“What we know is at the end of the day, the investors that come in at the Series C, Series D, you know, most of the time funding or partially funding first of a kind projects, they really want to see six months or more, or performance because things degrade if …”
Fernandez: Startups lock in offtake prices before engineering reveals 2x CapEx
“We find that many times off-takes are priced in a way before engineering, you know, failed one, failed two, engineering have been done, and it's based on optimistic CapEx assumptions. Now, when the companies go through the engineering process and they actually…”
Fernandez: Post-COVID, large EPC contractors no longer offer lump-sum turnkey contracts
“The reality is the EPC CapEx world changed dramatically after, after COVID, right? Things that used to be very secured, large scale EPC companies that used to be able to give you a, you know, lump sum turnkey contract are just not doing that anymore in, in con…”
Fernandez: FOAK climate projects cannot access traditional project-level debt
“As far as debt goes, we haven't seen it. We've seen people be able to raise debt at the corporate level via, via venture debt or via corporate debt. Now, those are very low leverage numbers, right? They're not the 80, 95% that, you know, you will get in solar.”
Fernandez: $60B–$70B infra funds have 15-year track records without project losses
“There is 70, 60, seventy billion dollar infrastructure funds that have a 15 year track record that have never lost money on any project they've invested in.”
Fernandez: Hardware de-risking requires stepping from pilot to 5-20x demo to FOAK
“The way we propose to do this is, you know, that company has to follow a path towards that de-risking, and that path in our, ah, experience is you go from a pilot to a five to 20 x demonstration project, and then you go to another 10, 10, 20 times, ah, first o…”
Fernandez: EPC contractors avoid small, high-risk climate demonstration projects
“Most of the time, the team has to build it themselves. No EPC contractor really wants to get into this smallish projects, high risk projects, right?”
Fernandez: Sequential climate tech project development adds three to five years
“And one of the things we point out that our experience shows that the companies that do it, you know, in a sequential way could take, you know, somewhere between three or five years to get to the first of a kind versus, you know, doing it in a lot less time.”
Fernandez: Customers accept offtake pricing tied to final CapEx and project returns
“We've seen projects pricing this either of the final capex number or of a margin or of a return for the project. So we have seen customers be willing to use those structures, right? You say, hey, we're going to make X, let's agree that this project will make X…”
Fernandez: Cement offtakers will rarely sign contracts exceeding five years
“In cement, where it's so short-term, It'd be really hard to get anybody to sign more than a five-year agreement, right?”
Fernandez: Infrastructure investors back FOAK projects for multi-project platform deployment options
“What we've seen is most of these infrastructure investors really play for the platform, right? I'm putting X hundred million dollars in the first project. What I really want to do is put a billion dollars into your next two or three projects, and a lot of them…”
Fernandez: Breakthrough Energy project canceled over balance-of-plant integration costs
“One of the things that we see on, on one of the projects that we committed to that, that was canceled was, you know, the balance of plant. The integration of four systems where the price was very well known in those four different systems, but the integration …”
Fernandez: Proven climate tech remains unfinanceable until de-risked for infrastructure funds
“The challenge is the fact that these companies reach a point where the technology has been proven, but it has not been the risk in the eyes of large scale infrastructure capital, right? Whether that is Infra funds or project finance banks, right? So you need t…”
The other half of the tape: Mario Fernandez's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 1 time in 1 episode across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most David Yeh 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
Catalyst 1
2023 1 mention in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Mario's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CATALYSTLEDGER | Former Head, Breakthrough Energy Catalyst | 1 | 15 | 0% 0/2 | full record on Catalyst → |
 GREEN BLUEPRINTLEDGER | Former Head, Breakthrough Energy Catalyst | 1 | 14 | 100% 2/2 | full record on the Green Blueprint → |