
The growing interest from pension funds and infrastructure investors in renewable energy projects was highlighted last week, as Dalmore Capital Limited and Pensions Infrastructure Platform bought a financial stake worth £701 million in 24 wind farms in the UK that are owned by the French electricity company; EDF Renewables.
This substantial financial investment, which will see the firms acquire a 49% minority stake in the 550MW portfolio, was backed with investment from large UK local authority pension schemes.
Under the terms of this new partnership deal, EDF Renewables will retain a share worth just over 50% and will continue to operate and manage the wind turbine sites which will include managing the day-to-day operations, technical maintenance, and providing asset management services.
EDF Renewables’ parent company EDF Energy will continue to purchase all the electricity and Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROC) that is generated by the wind farms on a standard market term.
Statement From Alistair Ray, CIO of Dalmore Capital
Recently, Alistair Ray, CIO of Dalmore Capital, commented about the appeal of renewable energy to pension funds. “Dalmore, on behalf of its investors, which include over two million UK pensioners, is very pleased to have led this acquisition to become a partner with EDF, a leading global utility, in this asset which makes a significant contribution to the UK’s clean energy supply. We look forward to working in partnership with EDF in delivering clean energy for the UK.”
His comments were mirrored by Mike Weston, CEO of Pensions Infrastructure Platform, who said the company was “delighted to be making this investment on behalf of a large UK local authority pension scheme”.
The wind farms that are covered by this new deal include a host of small and mid-sized onshore wind turbine farms, as well as the 177MW Dorenell wind farm in Moray, Scotland, and 62.1MW Teesside offshore wind farm off the North Yorkshire coast.
Source: Pension funds snap up £701m stake in EDF Renewables wind farms – Business Green