Aquila Capital has invested in a Norwegian hydropower portfolio.

The manager has bought six ‘run-of-river’ hydropower plants from Norwegian energy company BKK.

The plants, near Bergen, produce around 70 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity per year, equivalent to the average consumption of around 3,500 households.

Roman Rosslenbroich, chief executive and co-founder of Aquila Capital, said: “Run-of-river plants have among the best conversion efficiencies of all energy sources, with an efficiency factor exceeding 90%.

“They use proven, mature technology that, if well maintained, can produce energy for many decades.

“The long-term stable cash flows produced by hydropower are uncoupled from volatile carbon energy types, as well as other traditional asset classes such as equities and bonds, providing investors with strong diversification benefits.”

The assets will be operated and managed by Småkraft, financed by investment vehicles managed by Aquila Capital.

“By integrating the newly acquired plants into the portfolio managed by Småkraft, we can also ensure very low operating costs,” Rosslenbroich said.