IMPACTFUL RETURNS FROM ENERGY TRANSITION INVESTMENTS
We provide institutional clients with access to private equity and credit investments in sustainable energy infrastructure, which are characterised by stable long-term returns, low correlation with traditional asset classes, and a measurable positive impact on the climate. Having focussed exclusively on this specific sector since our foundation in 2009, our investment team embodies the experience required to navigate this dynamic market.
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our holistic approach
The ability to mitigate climate change will depend on a systematic departure from fossil fuels over the coming years. Given the importance of the energy sector as the main driver of CO2 emissions and thus global warming, this will primarily involve a comprehensive redesign of the way we generate, store, distribute and use energy.
We believe a holistic and flexible approach is needed to address the vast investment opportunity the energy transition offers. Accordingly, our current strategies focussing on infrastructure equity investments in OECD countries and Southeast Asia as well as credit investments cover all elements relevant to the energy transition. We base our integrated investment strategies on three themes:
Producing clean energy
To limit global warming and ensure safe and sustainable energy supplies, unprecedented amounts of investment in renewable energy production are required. Spurred by innovation, increased competition, and policy support in a growing number of countries, renewable energy technologies have achieved substantial technological advances and sharp cost reductions in recent years. Consequently, their deployment speed has come to outpace that of any other energy source.
The decarbonisation of energy production is a powerful long-term investment trend, with wind and solar sources representing two of the main growth drivers for generation capacity deployment. In addition, due to the coming-of-age of onshore wind generation, repowering projects using new turbines on existing, developed sites will also be required.
Having gone through a significant learning curve, the availability of reliable technologies at an industrial scale and at ever-decreasing costs resolves the historical contradiction between economic logic and ecological benefits. The fact that the levelized cost of renewable energy has become comparable to or lower than that of fossil fuel power plants in an increasing number of markets leads to a self-reinforcing dynamic that drives the continuing displacement of fossil-fuel-based power generation by renewable energy systems.
Increasing energy efficiency
Energy efficiency will be the most important contributor to energy sector decarbonisation on the demand side. It is expected to deliver almost half of the carbon emissions reductions required to fulfil climate targets, while benefitting from negative abatement costs: investments in energy efficiency not only reduce carbon emissions, but lower economic costs for the end user.
Efficiency measures typically reduce the energy intensity of existing infrastructure and cover a variety of proven technologies, from lighting and building retrofits, involving the installation of modern heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, to industrial energy management and onsite generation systems.
These energy and cost-saving measures are typically implemented by a specialist energy service company or a technology provider and can be funded by infrastructure capital. This partnership creates a “triple-win” situation: Investors participate in the energy cost savings and benefit from attractive returns, infrastructure owners realise energy, emissions, and cost savings without the need to commit their own capital, and technology partners benefit from growth that would not have been possible otherwise.
Enabling clean energy use
With increasing intermittency from renewable energy generation, power systems, in particular, will see an increasing need for balancing mechanisms such as storage as well as flexible generation and demand to offset swings in renewable energy production. Continuously falling technology costs support the trend towards energy storage.
Furthermore, the trend towards decentralised and customer-centric energy generation creates a fundamental rethink of how energy is produced and delivered. These developments are not only transforming traditional power and energy infrastructure systems but are reshaping customer expectations, thereby creating a need for new business models and infrastructure capital.
Finally, the increasing electrification and decarbonisation of fossil fuel-reliant sectors, such as transport, heating, and energy-intensive industrial processes, create new infrastructure needs, including for electric vehicles and the widespread use of green hydrogen as an energy carrier.
