Hydropower has supplied electricity in Europe for more than a century. Its core technology is mature; many plants have been operating for decades, and established sites can remain productive far longer than most other renewable-energy assets. Climate change does not invalidate this investment case, but it changes the way hydropower plants must be assessed and managed.

Shawn Quinn, managing director at Wilshire, recently spoke with Loretta Clodfelter, editorial director at Institutional Real Estate, Inc., about how volatility and uncertainty are driving increased allocation in the infrastructure asset class.

While new data centers cropping up in farms, fields and in communities on what feels like a daily basis, some U.S. policymakers are pumping the brakes.

The prevailing narrative suggests the United States is undergoing a broad-based manufacturing renaissance driven by policy focusing on the reshoring of industrial production. Although there is some evidence of increased investment in strategic industries such as semiconductors, batteries, energy and data centers, the broader economic picture remains more nuanced.

Twenty years ago, Institutional Real Estate, Inc. held its first conference for institutional investors in infrastructure — also in Chicago. Key themes in 2006 focused on making the case for infrastructure investment, how infrastructure investment should be classified, how it should be benchmarked and how it fit into an investor’s portfolio. The past two decades have answered many of those questions, as the infrastructure asset class has proven its investment case several times over — with both notable successes and some high-profile challenges.

I read a piece on leadership recently that named a trap I have watched derail capable people for the better part of 40 years. The author called it a land mine — one of those internal habits of mind that quietly stop us from getting where we mean to go — and the most destructive one on the list was certainty: the unwavering belief that you are right and the people who see it differently are wrong.

The first half of 2026 is in the ledgers — and we don’t need many lines to track the entries. According to Institutional Real Estate, Inc.’s infrastructure database, only nine infrastructure funds reached a final closing in the second quarter 2026, raising an aggregate total of $22.3 billion, resulting in a total of 28 funds closed and $54.2 billion raised in the first half.

In a sponsored interview published in the September issue of Institutional Investing in Infrastructure, Sam Lissner, a partner at Ridgewood Infrastructure, discussed the maturation of the infrastructure market and the opportunities it is creating, particularly in the lower middle market.

In a sponsored interview published in the September issue of Institutional Investing in Infrastructure, Guillermo Marroquin, partner – global co-head of infrastructure and energy at Campbell Lutyens, discusses how investors are navigating today’s infrastructure market and the nuances they are working with.