NETHERLANDS - Dutch pension giants ABP and PGGM have made a combined €200m investment into a new sustainable energy fund set up together with sustainable energy project developer Evelop.

Together with Delta Lloyd and Rabobank, the funds can invest a total of €500m in the so called Ampère Fund, which focuses on wind energy and biomass projects in various Western European countries.

According to an ABP spokesman, the investment is not being undertaking via PGGM and ABP's usual alternative investment platform, Alpinvest.

The fund will finance the development, construction and operation of these projects, while Evelop is already supervising the creating of a Dutch wind park, expected to be the first project to be financed by the new fund.

"All projects financed by the fund are expected to generate both a long-term predictable cash flow and an attractive yield on investments," ABP and PGGM said in a joint news release today.

Roderick Munsters, chief investment officer of ABP, added: "[Large-scale, sustainable energy projects] yield good stable returns for the participants in our pension fund," while also contributing to human wellbeing and the environment in the long-term.

Triodos Bank, a 'so-called' ethical bank focusing on sustainable investments, has been mandated to take on the fund's management.

"The Ampère fund was developed out of the need for a suitable source of finance for the existing Evelop project portfolio," the two schemes said in their release.

Together with Evelop, the schemes have created a "custom-made and legal construction for the fund", and if a project meets the right conditions, the fund will invest in it in the form of taking an equity stock.

According to the two Dutch schemes, these sustainable power stations reduce CO2 emissions by 1.5m tons per year.

ABP and PGGM have separately already invested in for instance micro-funds, clean technology and sustainable forestry.

Topics