State’s ISIF fund pledges €278m to green investments

The State-owned Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) is pledging almost €280 million to green energy businesses as it closes on its target to spend €1 billion on tackling climate change.

The fund, which operates under the umbrella of the National Treasury Management Agency, aims to back the State’s climate goals by investing in projects that cut greenhouse gas emissions.

On Tuesday, the ISIF announced it had committed €278 million to three green energy businesses meant to cut carbon dioxide output.

The move brings to €636 million the total that the State-owned fund has invested in climate projects since 2021, when it said it would spend €1 billion in this area over the succeeding five years.

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The new investments leave it on course to hit its €1 billion target two years ahead of schedule and to spend “significantly more” than that figure by 2026, the ISIF said a statement.

The ISIF is investing €200 million in Copenhagen Infrastructure V, the latest fund established by leading multinational green energy player, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

That firm and its partner, Norwegian utility Statkraft, last year won backing from the Republic’s Offshore Renewable Energy Support Scheme for a wind farm in the north Irish Sea that the developers say will have the capacity to supply up to 500,000 homes with electricity.

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ fifth fund aims to raise a total of €12 billion to invest in big renewable energy projects across western Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region, according to the multinational.

The firm has raised about €28 billion across 12 funds focused on the global switch from fossil fuel to renewables and the linked development of green energy technology.

The ISIF is also investing €50 million with UK-based asset manager the Impax Fund, which backs green energy developers by providing cash to build individual projects.

Impax has a partnership with Irish solar developer BNRG, which has six projects across Ireland, including counties Down, Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow, capable of producing 72 mega watts of electricity at full capacity.

Dublin-headquartered BNRG has large investments in the UK, US and mainland Europe.

Impax also has a stake in Dublin-based wind and solar energy developer Rengen Power, while the British firm continues to seek other opportunities in Ireland, according to ISIF.

The State-owned investor is committing €28 million to ArcTern Ventures Fund III, established by Canadian firm ArcTern, which specialises in green energy and carbon-reducing technology.

According to the ISIF, ArcTern will back start-ups using technology to solve climate- and sustainability-related problems.

The businesses will involve electricity and energy, industry, transport, including electric vehicle charging and other areas.

Nick Ashmore, director of the ISIF, confirmed that it was on course to hit its €1 billion climate change investment target two years ahead of scheduled in 2026.

“The commitments we’re announcing today show ISIF’s appetite to invest across the spectrum of available climate investments,” he said. “We’re heavy backers of wind and solar energy because Ireland needs more of this generating capacity to accelerate the economy’s transition to net zero.”

Mr Ashmore said the announcement demonstrated the importance of climate investment to the fund.