Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) has opened a new, UK-based renewable energy investment platform entitled Renewable Power Capital Limited (RPC).
The platform will target solar, battery storage and onshore wind investments among other technologies across the UK and Europe more broadly, and will be backed by CPP Investments’ multi-billion Power & Renewables investment strategy.
RPC brings together “long-term, flexible capital and a management team with a depth of expertise and sophisticated understanding of the European renewable energy market,” said Bruce Hogg, managing director, head of Power & Renewables at CPP Investments.
“The business is well-positioned to create value through enhancing routes to market, driving more efficient commercialization strategies and making improvements to assets’ capital structures as many European renewables markets transition towards a subsidy-free regime.”
Bob Psaradellis will head up the new arm, taking the role of CEO having formerly been at GE Energy Financial Services. In his previous role he closed equity investments in energy assets with over €5 billion (£4.5 billion) in enterprise value, as well as raising over $14 billion (£10.5 billion) in third-party equity and debt.
RPC will look at a long-term investment strategy, owning and operating renewable energy assets. It will build a scalable and diversified pan-European platform, targeting development, ready-to-build and operating assets initially before expanding.
Psaradellis said the new platform will initially look at investments in the Nordics and Spain before expanding to other European jurisdictions.
“Drawing on our deep expertise in the sector, we can work together in partnership with developers, wind and solar equipment manufacturers, construction companies, and investment partners as the market continues to mature and addresses long-term structural change. We have a well-developed pipeline of opportunities and expect to make our first investment in early 2021.”
RPC will be chaired by Shaun Kingsbury CBE, formerly chief executive of the UK Green Investment Bank. Psaradellis will be joined on the management team by Mark Hanson as general counsel and chief operating officer, Mariano Berges as chief commercial officer, Steve Hunter as director of Power Markets and Daniel Szentirmai as principal.
CPP Investments has already developed an expansive portfolio of renewable energy assets globally, with C$9 billion (£5.3 billion) of equity commitments as of September 2020. This covers 4.5GW of operating assets – ranging from solar, storage, onshore wind, offshore wind and hydro – in Brazil, Canada, Germany, Japan and the USA, with investment professionals in Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, New York and Toronto.