The worlds largest sovereign wealth fund, Norges Bank Investment Management, has agreed to make its first investment in renewable energy worth £1.375 billion ($1.63 billion) in Dutch offshore wind farm.
The bank controls around $1.1 trillion in assets which is mainly derived from the country’s offshore oil reserves said it will buy the stake in the Borssele 1& 2 offshore wind farm from Denmark’s Orsted AS, who will remain co-owner and the operator of the project.
Orsted won rights to the Borssele 1&2 site in July 2016, with an average bid strike price, excluding transmission costs, of EUR 72.70/MWh for the first 15 years of the project’s operation.
Borssele 1 & 2 consists of 94 Siemens Gamesa 8 megawatt offshore wind turbines located 23 kilometres off the coast of the Dutch region of Zeeland. The wind farm has an installed capacity of 752 megawatts and produces energy equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of around one million Dutch households.
Norges Bank is Norway’s central bank. The Bank’s primary objective is to promote economic stability in Norway. Norges Bank also manages the Government Pension Fund Global and the bank’s own foreign exchange reserves.
Nicolai Tangen, The Chief Executive Officer of Norges Investment Management said in statement:
“Unlisted renewable energy infrastructure is a new asset class for the fund, which we invest in to improve the overall diversification of the fund. We look forward to continuing to execute on our investment strategy for unlisted renewable energy infrastructure.”
Mie Holstad, The Chief Real Assets Officer at Norges Bank Investment Management said:
“The acquisition is in line with our strategy to build a high-quality portfolio of wind and solar power generation assets.”
“The unlisted renewable energy infrastructure strategy supplements our existing unlisted real estate portfolio well, and we draw on our long experience with direct investments.”
