Dutch pension fund ABP and oil company Shell have taken a stake in enie.nl, a Dutch firm that leases and sells solar panels to consumers and companies.
Enie.nl will use the capital injection to expand abroad and invest more in batteries and charging stations.
ABP is making the investment via a special €250m fund to power the energy transition in the Netherlands.
The €550bn civil service pension scheme has previously invested in district heating networks in several municipalities, as well as in 50 start-ups that develop innovative solutions to enable the energy transition.
ABP expects enie.nl to “play an important role” in increasing the percentage of solar energy in the Netherlands’ energy mix, which currently stands at only 9.5%.
The pension scheme declined to say how much it was investing in enie.nl or the size of the stake it acquired, but the capital injection is large enough to facilitate further expansion into Belgium and Germany, among other countries, according to the firm’s co-founder Milan van der Meulen.
Currently, enie.nl has activities in the Netherlands and South Africa. The firm also wants to combine producing energy via solar panels with selling batteries and charging stations.
“This way, we will create a comprehensive sustainable energy solution for at home and at the workplace,” said Van der Meulen.
