GERMANY - The €50bn Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK) is adding an investment in a solar park portfolio to its infrastructure exposure.
The BVK aims to invest around €100m in an unnamed solar park vehicle, with the majority of the photovoltaic panels for it having been erected in Germany.
A BVK spokesman confirmed to IPE that this was the fund's first foray into solar energy, but he declined to disclose the name of the solar park operator.
Daniel Just, deputy chairman and head of asset management at BVK, a signatory of UNPRI, said: "For a long time now, we have invested in alternatives like wood investment or facilities generating alternative energies."
He explained that solar energy was "another step toward sustainable and cross-generational investments", as well as a diversifier for the portfolio.
Four years ago, BVK started to invest in infrastructure such as transport, supply, energy and social infrastructure.
The fund noted that these investments offered "stable cash flow and inflation protection", as well as returns mostly uncorrelated to those of equities and bonds.
Infrastructure is part of the alternatives portfolio at the BVK, which currently makes up around 8% of total assets.
At this year's Expo Real fair in Munich, two of BVK's real estate development projects were awarded gold by the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB).
The office block 'arabeska' in Munich and the multi-purpose block 'Elbarkaden' in
Hamburg's harbour were given the highest certificate the DGNB awards.
Buildings are judged by energy efficiency, production processes using fewer resources, public transport and social criteria.
