Yesterday, Aussie Aware Super, EMS (Equitix) and the National Wealth Fund announced a £500m investment in battery technology. The FT reports the story through Mary McDougall.
The story for pensions is that not one penny was raised from UK pension funds. Ian Brown, CEO of our National Wealth Fund is reported as saying
“I’m rather hoping that when they see Damien here some of them might step forward,”
The “Damien” in question is Australian Damien Webb who runs Australia’s Aware Super, a pension fund that sees Britain a rather more investment opportunity than British Pension Funds do. Or perhaps he is a little more energetic and a little more visionary.
Clean energy
The investment will be in Eelpower,
A photo from 2018
The photo is from Eelpower’s website- it’s 7 years old. Below – here they are – 7 years on- there’s a story there I’m sure!
Each project has an output capacity of 50 megawatts of power and storage capacity of 100 megawatt-hours, capable of collectively providing electricity for the equivalent of about 240,000 homes for two hours. The investors are carrying out ongoing diligence on more battery storage assets with a view that the committed £500mn will be invested in the “near term”, Aware Super said.
The investors hope to ultimately develop about 1GW of battery capacity in the coming years, mostly before 2030. Britain had about 4.5GW of battery capacity as of the end of 2024 and the government estimates it will need 23-27GW by 2030 to meet its clean power goal. Without the help of pension fund’s money, hitting these targets is going to be hard.
I hear a lot from consultants and asset managers of the importance of monitoring the ESG factors in the pensions they supply to but not a lot of action from the people who invest the money in our pension schemes. Obvious candidates including the master trusts, USS and LGPS and the few remaining corporate DB schemes with growth budgets should indeed listen to Damien Webb
I want to see my money in Nest and other commercial master trusts investing in conjunction with the National Wealth Fund.
There is no point in being clever about ESG in conferences , we need pension funds to get stuck in as our Government has asked them to.
The commitment from the Australian giant comes as the UK government is trying to drive more domestic investment infrastructure among British pension schemes by creating fewer, bigger pension funds with greater buyer power and more focus on value than on fees. Is this message getting through?
I would love to hear from UK pension trustees, their advisers and the commercial and traditional sponsors of UK pension schemes who have similar tales to tell.
Given the last words from Aware Super’s Damien
Given the risk profile of the investment he said he was “definitely looking for a double-digit return”.
The NWF, Aware Super and Equitix are all investing on the same terms.
Other power propositions need funding.
Other power propositions are looking for money to see through their aspirations. Global Interconnection Group is another. Let’s hope they are not left waiting for help. They are making a lot of progress in Iceland on geothermal – let’s hope that translates into power connected with the UK,
