The growth of populations, data centers, IA, electrification, energy transition and urbanization are all the key reasons that the infrastructure represents an investment opportunity of $ 106 $ 106 from 2024 to 2040, according to McKinsey and Co. researchers.
The firm published a report on September 9 highlighting the convergence and intersection of various sectors such as water, digital, energy and transport and the subsequent search of new business models that will involve more and more private investments.
“The definition of infrastructure is changing,” said Alastair Green, a senior partner of McKinsey, at the infrastructure summit he hosted in Los Angeles from 9 to 11 September. He said that the definition of infrastructure now includes 100 more types, 30% of which are relatively new. They are under seven vertical large: transport, water/waste water, energy, digital, agricultural, social and aerospace/defense.
Energy transition is one of the main engines of the need for investment, with countries around the world that seek to achieve various sustainability goals for 2030 and beyond. In the United Kingdom, there is an investment of 12 billion pounds in sustainable energy projects, but “ we need an investment of £ 40 million, said that Fintan Slye, CEO of National Energy System. Steve Powell, President and CEO of South California Edison, echoed the need for more investment, saying that it takes 75 billion $ $ 75 billion; Distribution systems need to increase ten, he said.
“We are behind for almost any measure” to try to achieve sustainability goals, said Gene Gebolys, CEO of World Energy, a global biofuels company. But he expressed optimism that large corporations would not give up these goals. “They can reposition -but most care about their brand, personal values and mission,” he said.
The panelists agreed that the license and permits process for infrastructure projects must be rationalized, and Powell said that a transmission project could take up to 20 years despite the real construction that only takes advantage of it.
Geopolitical uncertainty is another factor that involves challenges. The pandemic, the global war and the current North -American administration have contributed to “a reversal of foundations that we used to be, such as free trade,” said Christopher Frost, CEO of Macquarie Asset Management. For three decades so far, “the relatively benign interest environment, the international rule -based order and the belief that infrastructure is essential for economic growth provided a constructive environment for this class of assets,” he said.
Jonathan Elkind, a leading advisor to Wester’s advisers and former assistant assistant affairs with the United States Department of Energy, also noted the “uncertainty around the legal structures that were previously thought out.” He warned that “poorly considered change can be dangerous and creepy for investment.”
However, investment in infrastructure is still a class of “low -risk, low return,” said Frost. Luba Nikulina, director of strategy at IFM Investors, said that her recently published report finds that the infrastructure is still a “interest trajectory” with the expectations of ROI investors largely in a year.
The interest of the private sector is vital to meet the needs of infrastructure. “We are desperate for the diversification of funding,” said Jamie Torres-Preiner, President of the Construction and Development Arm of the New York City Metropolitan Transport Authority. He said that the agency is interested in possible public-private collaborations for projects such as the planned redevelopment of an old goods line in a traffic line that connects Brooklyn and Queens, and that “we have moved a lot to design creation and encouraging schedules” for contractors.
Shailen Bhatt, director general of Atkinsrealis and former head of the federal road administration, suggested that private sector companies could even be incorporated with public projects. “It takes politics out of the infrastructure,” he added, and “solving the contracting process” to implement new technologies.
Private partners such as Dominion Energy work in fact with public entities such as Virginia and South Carolina, said Carlos Brown, executive vice president of Dominion. “The developer must be open … what is the ultimate goal? What are non -negotiable?” Then do not be restricted by traditional models, he said.
“This is not the solution; this is the purpose” of the Infrastructure Project, said Nick Harris, CEO of the National Roads of the United Kingdom, who plans to begin construction in the 14.50st -lower tunnels of tunnels of the lowest Thames next year. He said that a reflective purpose of a project to attend to the community through economic development, environment, inclusion or other positive goals can help a project to survive political cycles in constant transformation.
In Australia, while the focus shifts from the Megaproject of Transport to Energy Transition projects, “projects will have to mark many boxes,” said Adam Copp, Director General of Australia Infrastructure. Encountering the subject of the McKinsey report on interconnections between infrastructure, he said that, regardless of the main emphasis of a project, other issues such as housing, manufacture, decarbonization and knowledge sharing will have to be addressed.
Brown coincided: In the coming years, “a lot of dirt will fly … [and projects] It will be more inclusive than ever. “
