Aquila Capital Launches Energy Transition Strategy ETIF
Aquila Capital has announced that it is launching its new energy transition strategy, ETIF (Energy Transition Infrastructure Fund). Advancing upon three fully invested predecessor funds, the strategy is to invest in energy infrastructure assets that are essential to Europe's energy transition. Aquila Capital currently manages renewable energy generation assets with a capacity of about 2,200MW.
ETIF will pursue the three most important subsectors of the energy transition, namely renewable energy generation, energy storage and energy transportation. It is planned to launch the strategy as a Luxembourg-based Reserved Alternative Investment Fund (RAIF) with a target volume of EUR 750 million and a term of 12 years. The target net IRR is 8% to 10% per annum.
"There are numerous developments driving the need for strategic investment in European energy infrastructure projects," says Susanne Wermter, Head of Investment Management Energy & Infrastructure EMEA at Aquila Capital. "Energy consumption is rising, which is increasingly being met by renewable energy assets such as photovoltaics and wind power rather than fossil fuel and nuclear generation."
"Sufficient transport and storage capacities must be created or amended to meet the challenges of the energy transition. As such, the advancing decentralisation and necessary integration of the energy system offers investors attractive opportunities. This is why we have designed the ETIF to cover the entire value chain in renewable energy supply."
The new strategy is primarily seeking investments in onshore and offshore wind power, photovoltaics, hydropower, electricity grids and heat networks, as well as energy storage with an emphasis on greenfield projects. The geographical focus is on continental Europe and the Nordic countries, with possible additional allocations in Great Britain and in Central and Eastern Europe. Ten to 15 investments with an average equity ticket of EUR 50 to 75 million are planned.
"Europe is entering a new phase of the energy transition. There has been significant progress in the development of renewable energy generation and grid parity has already been attained in many regions."
"In the coming years, investments in energy storage and grid capacity will become much more important. Our response to this development is the ETIF strategy, which allows investors to participate financially and ecologically in the Europe-wide energy transition on a sustainable basis," says Roman Rosslenbroich, CEO and co-founder of Aquila Capital.
