Aware Super Invests in Potential Energy Market Worth $100 Billion

Aware Super has invested substantially in North Harbour Clean Energy.

North Harbour Clean Energy has estimated the investment opportunity to be worth $30 billion in 2030 and $100 billion in 2050. This judgement is based on the Australian Energy Market Operator's estimates that an extra 400 GWh of storage will be required by 2030 and over 600 GWh by 2050.

Mark Hector, senior portfolio manager at Aware Super, stated that North Harbour Clean Energy's proposal aligns perfectly with the fund's investment philosophy, which seeks to provide members with high long-term returns. He noted that its investment plan would have a favourable effect on communities.

Hector said: "In North Harbour Clean Energy, we saw an opportunity to support a very early-stage energy storage business, led by a team with excellent credentials in the energy sector, energetically pursuing solutions that can deliver on Eastern Australia's absolute need for dispatchable, renewable power."

"In addition to providing early working capital, we recognised a significant strategic opportunity to fund larger equity capital into future successful development projects.

"That presented us with a very attractive opportunity to deliver strong investment performance for our members at the same time as making a meaningful and practical contribution to the nation's energy transition."

North Harbour Clean Energy managing director Tony Schultz said:

"We know electrifying the Australian economy needs to mean more than simply replacing domestic energy generation with renewables.

"Declining sources of carbon-intensive dispatchable power, driven by the move to decarbonise electricity generation, is the key issue in the electricity market and is now an increasing part of the discussion.

"Pumped hydro in particular can play a significant role in closing that capacity gap, and we're very enthusiastic about the opportunities that our project portfolio has the potential to unlock."

North Harbour Clean Energy aims to identify, construct, and operate renewable energy storage projects, concentrating on storage technologies, close-loop pumped hydro, and vanadium redox flow batteries. The latter is the most suitable type of rechargeable flow battery for grid energy storage.

This most recent ESG investment by Aware Super comes one week after an analysis by Rainmaker Information designated the company as an ESG Super Leader.

Source: Financial Standard

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