DENMARK - Three Danish pension funds, PensionDanmark, PBU and AP Pension have joined forces to invest DKK750m (€101m) in renewable energy projects, including a group of Spanish solar-cell parks which benefit from a 30-year state-backed price guarantee for the energy they produce.

Labour-market pension fund firm PensionDanmark said it and PBU - the labour-market pension fund for nursery teachers - had entered into an agreement to become co-investors in the Green Power Partners fund. The fund was set up earlier this year by commercial pension provider AP Pension, in conjunction with privately-owned group Proark, through its unit Proark Energy.

The three pension funds have pledged to invest a total of DKK750m in the fund, with this sum expected to be fed in over the next eighteen months to two years, said PensionDanmark.

The Green Power Partners fund will invest in renewable, carbon-neutral energy projects, primarily focusing on sun and wind energy projects in selected European countries, it said. The first investment of DKK135m had already been made in three solar cell parks in Spain, near Barcelona.

"The Spanish investments are particularly attractive because the Spanish state is guaranteeing that the electricity production from the parks can be sold for the next 30 years at a fixed inflation-adjusted price, which will produce an attractive profit," the firm said in a statement.

Torben Möger Pedersen, managing director of PensionDanmark, said the investment in Green Power Partners was nicely in line with the firm's other specialised investments in the energy sector, including TCW Energy and Energy Capital Partners, among others.

"These funds involve investments in several companies with activities in wind solar and thermal energy as well as improving the efficiency of energy distribution systems," he said.
"These, and our most recent investment, are aimed at securing a good profit for our members on their investments. It is very positive that we can contribute to the lowering of carbon emissions at the same time."

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