Wael Al-Mazeedi at the Forefront of BTU Group

Alongside his life partner, Mitsue Oishi, Wael Al-Mazeedi stands atop one of the world's largest private energy producers. The Chief Executive Officer of the Waltham, Massachusetts-based BTU Group, Mr. Al-Mazeedi has come quite a long way from his humble roots, where he was forced at gunpoint to flee Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War in 1990. Known for his finesse, tact, and diplomatic skill, Wael Al-Mazeedi studied Applied Chemistry with Control Engineering at the University of Kent in Canterbury. After receiving his Bachelor's degree, he received a post-graduate diploma from the College of Petroleum and Energy Studies in the United Kingdom, and then earned a Master's degree in Public Administration from Harvard University's School of Government.

From Novinite.com

In the ensuing quarter century, Mr. Al-Mazeedi and Mitsue Oishi have started two companies that have made widespread access to electricity a reality for even the poverty-stricken residents of North Africa, the Middle East, China, and more. After beginning his career working as an engineer in a refinery, he seamlessly transitioned to the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, where he was an investment analyst. With over two decades of experience under his belt, Wael Al-Mazeedi has become known worldwide as an expert at developing and financing large-scale energy projects. The BTU Group, which he started in 2001, boasts a current net worth of over one billion dollars.

From BTU Ventures

BTU Power – a private equity fund – manages huge quantities of power generation (11,000 Megawatts of power generation potential to be precise). Located throughout the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Taiwan, and Tunisia, these projects are developed and managed by BTU Power. Mr. Al-Mazeedi – who additionally serves as Managing Partner of BTU Power – oversaw the acquisition of the Carthage Power Company, a 471 Megawatt power plant located in Rades, Tunisia. BTU Power became the majority of owner of CPC when it purchased 60% of the private plant that produces and then sells nearly a full quarter of all electricity consumed in Tunisia to STEG, the Tunisian national electric and gas utility.

From BTU Ventures

The collaborative success story of Mr. Al-Mazeedi and Mitsue Oishi has been nothing short of remarkable. BTU aims to create a universally accessible, sustainable energy infrastructure in order to transform the global energy industry. Wael Al-Mazeedi envisions the global energy industry as an impetus for economic growth and technological advancement. “At BTU, we aim to create a new type of energy company that will pioneer a sustainable business model,” Mr. Al-Mazeedi explained. “BTU’s goal is to lead the way in the development of globally accessible and sustainable energy infrastructure in a world that is in the early stages of a transformation to a multi-source energy future.”

Wael Al-Mazeedi’s Bet on Fossil Fuel Plants on the Same Electric Grid with Wind Farms

Wael Al-Mazeedi, CEO and Founder of the BTU Group, sizes up the hybridization of renewable energy resources and fossil fuels in its early stages.

From BDNewsLive

Energy sources are allies, not enemies in the world of grid operation. In Chuck Lenzie, the 1102 MW gas-fired plant in Nevada, the steam heated out of solar power streams into the steam cycle of fossil plants, which in turn send it out during sun-less days. Case reversed, the sun emits low-cost energy.

This is not the only significant crisscrossing between natural power from the sun and wind and non-renewable reserves coal, oil, and natural gas. Hybridization is underway, and it is not merely a technological play but an industry’s maturation signified.

From Inhabitat

Wael Al-Mazeedi, Mitsue Oishi, and fellow directors at the BTU Industries share the vision of seizing hybrid combination projects and work hand in hand with like-minded industry leaders. Propelled to resolve the disturbing phenomenon of intermittency of the electric grid, they vouch for the supplementation of fossil fuels when renewable sources are less reliable or unproductive.

Mr. Al-Mazeedi and company tout the backdrop of this bridge to a potential industrial revolution as its “watershed moment.” The CEO extols the conventionality of fossil fuel plant designs, as opposed to disruptive “new energy technologies” that go against the rigidity of the industry to embrace radical change. Hybrid generation, he adds, will promote the co-existence of both resources and not just a substitution of one of the other.

From Novinite

More information about Wael Al-Mazeedi can be accessed at www.btupower.com.

BTU Ventures: Powering Global Development

“Powering Global Development” is the emphatic catchphrase of BTU Ventures, a private equity (PE) firm that propels the global energy industry towards becoming an engine for socially and environmentally sustainable economic and technological escalation.

From BTU Ventures

It is a tough call for the company as it targets power and power-related projects in the emerging economies, in which a challenge is posed to thrust them towards the global competition. But in a little less than a decade, BTU Industries has been nimble and astute in its mission. Now it boasts of an asset portfolio that has rapidly grown and diversified. From its pioneering purchase of PSEG’s 50% equity interest in Meiya Power Company to its eventual divestiture, BTU Ventures has owned up to its venturing identity.

Carthage Power Company (CPC)
This 471 MW combined cycle gas turbine plant is the only independent power producer (IPP) in the country of Tunisia. Auctioned by PSEG in 2004, the PE group led by Wael Al-Mazeed was able to acquire CPC’s 50% rate of return. Owing to 23% of energy distribution in the country, CPC has allowed BTU access to a torrent of cash flow that is supported by a 20-year power purchase agreement in a principal investment area in North Africa.

From BTU Ventures

Taweelah Asia Power Company (TAPCO)

TAPCO is a BTU acquisition and Brownfield co-development project enhanced by an established and well-structured development framework located in the United Arab Emirates. It is at par with the largest independent water and power producers (IWPPs) in the world. Even with a meager 10% equity interest, the company can leverage the spike in water and power demand in the country.

More information on how BTU Ventures power global development through power generation and water desalination projects can be accessed at www.btupower.com.

From BTU Ventures