UK’s Environment Agency Pension Fund (EAPF) has backed Schroders Greencoat’s UK secure income renewables fund with a £170m (€197.7m) commitment.
EAPF’s commitment to Greencoat Renewable Income (GRI) lifts the fund’s total capital raised to £1.35bn as it targets a final close in December 2024, Schroders Greencoat said.
As previously reported, Cornwall Pension Fund also backed GRI. The Brunel Pension Partnership and the Superannuation Arrangements of the University of London also invested £277m in total in GRI.
Schroders Greencoat said GRI, which invests in “renewable infrastructure assets that generate stable, inflation-protected income streams” over a long-term horizon, also makes “opportunistic allocations to other energy transition infrastructure leveraging technologies such as heat pumps and green hydrogen electrolysis”.
GRI has so far deployed over £1bn, gaining exposure to over 165 assets across the UK.
Recent investments include stakes in the largest operational solar portfolio to ever be traded in the UK, the largest district heating platform in the UK, the largest portfolio of hydrogen infrastructure in development supported by the UK government, and a 630MW operating offshore wind farm, Schroders Greencoat said.
Tatiana Zervos, portfolio manager at Schroders Greencoat, said: “Renewable infrastructure assets are the backbone of the energy transition and, as the largest asset manager of operational wind and solar assets in the UK, Schroders Greencoat is able to offer its clients direct access to these opportunities with long-term reliable, inflation-linked cashflows via a diversified strategy.
“Our track record means we are a trusted partner for influential investors such as the EAPF and we’re delighted to build on our relationship with Brunel which dates back to the fund’s inception in 2019.”
Craig Martin, chief pensions officer at the Environment Agency Pension Fund, said: “Driving the UK transition to a low carbon economy in partnership with Brunel, Schroders Greencoat and the GRI fund was a natural fit for EAPF. We have a long-standing target of achieving 17% asset under management in climate solutions by 2025.
“This investment will help us achieve this, and support the UK’s levelling up agenda. We look forward to working with the team and our Brunel partner investors to scale UK renewables.”
Richard Fanshawe, head of private markets at Brunel Pension Partnership, said: “We are very pleased to have facilitated this investment for the Environment Agency Pension Fund to invest into Greencoat Renewable Income alongside its Brunel pool partners Avon, Cornwall, Dorset, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire.
“This investment achieves multiple impact, levelling-up, energy-transition and return ambitions in one fell swoop for the Environment Agency, whose remit is country-wide, not county-specific.”
EAPF is one of the founding members of the Brunel Pension Partnership
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