One of the largest pension funds in Australia, Aware Super has announced plans to invest up to AUD 2 billion ($1.3 billion) in renewable energy company Birdwood Energy’s distributed generation portfolio. 

The investment will be geared towards Birdwood Distributed Energy Platform for small-scale solar and storage projects. The new entity has 2 operational solar farms to which storage capacities are being added. Birdwood says the distributed energy platform has another 10 grid-scale solar and storage projects to construct in its current portfolio. 

The new platform will also opt for inorganic growth through the acquisition of late-stage developments, ready-to-build projects and equity investments in businesses to scale and accelerate distributed energy. Offtake agreements will be signed with retail, commercial and industrial customers. 

Aware Super sees this investment as providing an opportunity to its 1.1 million members a ‘unique entry point’ into the small-scale solar and storage assets and contribute to the clean energy transition. 

Aware Super’s Head of Infrastructure Mark Hector said, “An investment in the Birdwood Distributed Energy Platform is not only consistent with our strategy to increase our exposure to energy transition through diversification into distributed renewable energy generation and storage, it is also aligned with our objective of generating strong risk-adjusted returns for Aware Super members, which can be achieved through the deployment of further capital into sustainable investments.”