Aware Super has $2b green plan to dodge energy grid logjam
Aware Super expects to invest up to $2 billion in small-scale solar and batteries through a partnership with privately owned Birdwood Energy. The investment will be in a distributed energy platform that would dodge the transmission logjam, which is putting a brake on the transition to renewables.
The $160 billion pension fund has made an initial commitment of $300 million to the platform but expects its investment to reach at least five times that figure. In the race to reach net zero emissions, growth is taking off in smaller renewables and storage projects that can connect to the existing distribution grid.
The investment is thought to be the first by an Australian superannuation fund into the distributed energy sector, which is typically difficult for institutional investors to access because of the multitude of smaller companies and projects involved.
“We see a very deep pipeline [of projects], of $1.5 [billion] to $2 billion,” said Aware Super infrastructure portfolio manager Jiren Zhou.
He said the fund had more than $2 billion invested in large-scale energy transition and renewables projects, mostly utility-scale wind, and wanted to diversify while remaining with the transition theme.
Mr Zhou said the Birdwood platform would allow Aware to invest in smaller projects that could be deployed faster and would have lower development risk and quicker grid connections, all augmented by battery storage.
Birdwood, which attracted UK-based investor Victory Hill into a separate partnership last year, has acquired two operating solar farms west of Adelaide for the platform that will be funded by Aware, and it is adding battery storage to this. Also included is a commercial renewable asset finance business called Juice Capital
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