The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), part of the National Treasury Management Agency, has announced three new climate investments targeting offshore wind energy, renewable energy developers, and start-ups in energy transition.
The investments include €200m in Copenhagen Infrastructure 5, the latest Flagship fund of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, and €50m Impax New Energy Investors 4 Fund. Both CIP and Impax are currently developing wind farms in Ireland.
The final investment was €30m in ArcTern Ventures Fund 3.
The three new awards bring total ISIF commitments to climate investments to €636m since 2021, representing 63.6% of ISIF’s stated aim of investing €1bn in climate in the period 2021 to 2026.
The latest investments show ISIF is now on course to meet its stated aim almost two years ahead of schedule and to invest significantly more than €1bn in climate over the five-year period, said the fund.
CIP has already secured 500MW in the first Irish Offshore Renewable Electricity Support Scheme 1 auction through its partnership with Statkraft, to develop an offshore wind project in the north of the Irish Sea, with capacity to power up to half a million homes in Ireland.
CIP is the world’s largest dedicated fund manager within greenfield renewable energy investments and invests across a range of technologies, including offshore wind, energy storage, and onshore wind and solar projects, in North America, Western Europe, and the Asia Pacific region.
The Impax Fund will focus on partnering with renewable energy developers and investing in the build-out of assets in the sector. Impax has an existing presence in Ireland, through its partnership with solar developer BNRG and acquisition of a majority stake in wind developer, Rengen Power, and it will seek to invest in opportunities in Ireland in development platforms, new build projects and new energy infrastructure.
The ArcTern Fund will deploy capital into start-ups which are applying technology to solve climate and sustainability issues.
“In 2021, we announced plans to invest €1bn over five years in addressing the climate challenge and we are on course to hit that amount about two years ahead of schedule,” said ISIF director Nick Ashmore.
“This demonstrates the importance we have been attaching to getting behind climate investments – and the necessity of making these investments.
“The commitments we are announcing today show ISIF’s appetite to invest across the spectrum of available Climate investments.
“We are heavy backers of wind and solar energy because Ireland needs more of this generating capacity to accelerate the economy’s transition to net zero.”