Some 476 megawatts of storage were deployed in third-quarter 2020, an increase of 240 percent over the previous high set during the previous quarter. What’s more, the U.S. battery energy storage market is set to grow from 1.2 gigawatts in 2020 to nearly 7.5 gigawatts in 2025, driven primarily by large-scale utility procurements, and solar-paired storage will account for a large majority of these installations, according to the U.S. Energy Storage Association.

The coronavirus has spared no part of the world. But as we move into year two of the pandemic, the situation appears set to stabilize. That should encourage investors to take a more expansive view, after playing defense for so long.

The GLIO Index of infrastructure companies climbed (8.2 percent) in November, its fourth largest one-month rally since 1999, as the U.S. election was decided and COVID vaccines hit the headlines.

President-elect Biden and the 117th Congress must craft bipartisan infrastructure legislation early in the new administration. We’ll focus on public infrastructure since the market for financing private infrastructure is efficient. “Amtrak Joe,” who regularly commuted during his years in the Senate, is well aware of the need for innovation in financing public infrastructure. Hopes for similar big ideas were dashed during the Trump administration. They were promoted during the Obama, George W. Bush and Clinton years. Not much happened.

In January of 2020, no one expected or could even fathom the situation we are in today. In September 2020, when part one to this two-part series published, Julio Garcia, head of infrastructure – North America at IFM Investors, reminded us that many infrastructure assets are essential to the well-being of the communities they serve, and their services are difficult to replicate or to substitute, stating at the time, “While short-term resilience will vary by subsector, I expect a well-diversified infrastructure portfolio will demonstrate solid resilience during this period.”

In the investment practice, definitions of “infrastructure” center on basic physical structures and “hard” public assets that provide essential services to society. A common distinction is between economic and social infrastructure.