Welcome Kanin Energy: Turning Industrial Waste Heat Into Reliable Power

Industrial facilities across North America are facing a more challenging power equation. Rising electricity costs, grid congestion, and reliability constraints are putting greater pressure on operators to find solutions that can improve economics without adding complexity to their core businesses.

Heat generated as a byproduct of normal operations is routinely vented into the atmosphere at thousands of facilities, including oil and gas operations, cement plants, steel mills, and other metals and minerals production sites. Up to 58% of the energy consumed in industrial processes is lost as waste heat. Capturing even a portion of that energy and converting it into electricity can provide reliable power without additional fuel or emissions.

That’s why S2G is excited to welcome Kanin Energy to the portfolio. Kanin has secured up to $100 million in new equity financing in a round led by S2G, with commitments of up to $50 million each from S2G and Canada Growth Fund. Our investment was made through S2G’s structured finance strategy, which provides flexible capital to asset-oriented energy and infrastructure businesses.

Putting Industrial Heat to Work

Kanin develops on-site power projects for heavy industrial customers, with a particular focus on deploying waste heat to power solutions. The company captures heat that would otherwise be lost and converts it into baseload electricity delivered directly to the host facility or a local off-taker at below-market rates. On-site generation can lower operators’ exposure to grid constraints and price volatility, while allowing companies to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions without changing the industrial process at the center of their business.

As a technology-agnostic developer, Kanin matches each facility with the generation technology and commercial structure that best fits its operations. Its waste heat offering is built around organic Rankine cycle (ORC) turbines with more than four decades of deployment history. The company deploys these solutions with an approach that prioritizes bankability and reliability.

Turning waste heat into a productive power asset requires specialized knowledge across engineering, project development, financing, interconnection, power markets, construction, and long-term operations. Through its Energy-as-a-Service model, Kanin can finance, develop, build, own, and operate the underlying assets. This allows industrial customers to access on-site power without making the project a competing capital priority or developing power-market expertise internally.

Kanin has approximately 50 MW of waste heat to power projects in construction or operation. Its operating project in Ohio is supplying zero-emission electricity to the University of Dayton, while projects such as the Mewbourn Waste Heat to Power Project in Weld County, Colorado, are extending its reach to additional industrial sites.

Why We Invested

We believe Kanin’s commercially proven model positions the company to bring an underused energy resource to more industrial operators by combining established technology with the capital and execution capabilities needed to deliver projects.

The founding team brings complementary experience to that effort. CEO Janice Tran’s background spans energy investing and project finance, while co-founder and Chief Development Officer Dan Fipke brings experience in power markets, commercial development, and energy regulation. Together, those perspectives inform how Kanin evaluates opportunities and navigates the requirements of industrial customers, lenders, and utilities.

Financing can be difficult to secure during the period between initial development and operating at a scale that attracts institutional infrastructure capital. We see an opportunity for our Structured Finance strategy to help bridge that gap, supporting Kanin as it brings assets into service and establishes a broader operating track record. Over time, we believe that progress can expand the financing options available to support further growth.

The new funding will support Kanin’s development, construction, and operation of additional waste heat to power and other on-site power projects across the United States and Canada. We are excited to partner with Janice and the Kanin team as they expand access to dependable, lower-cost electricity for heavy industry.