The former heads of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Australian Energy Market Operator, and several other key players in the energy industry, have taken leading roles in a new fund that will focus on equity investments in clean energy infrastructure in Australia.
Former ARENA boss Ivor Frischknecht is heading up the Australia and Asia Pacific division of Sosteneo, which is backed by Italian-based Generali, one of the world’s largest asset managers and insurance conglomerates with more than €500 billion in assets.
The former CEO of AEMO, Audrey Zibelman, who is now an advisor to Andrew Forrest’s Squadron Energy and Google’s X, the “moonshot factory”, will sit on the board, along with experienced renewable energy developer Chris Twomey and infrastructure specialist Chris Deves.
The managing partner of Sosteneo, and its head in Europe, is Umberto Tamburrino, a former CEO of Australian solar farm company Elliot Green Power.
Frischknecht said in a statement that the fund is looking at equity investments in solar, wind, geothermal, storage, networks and industry decarbonisation projects including electrification, energy efficiency, hydrogen, transport electrification and “aggregated” energy assets.
“Our team of investment specialists draw on years of experience across energy markets, funds management and clean energy investment in Europe, Australia and the United States, including structuring innovative financing arrangements to make new clean energy technologies bankable,” he said.
Frischknecht later told RenewEconomy that the fund had already made three investments, including a 100MW one hour battery in the UK and two solar farms in Europe.
“There’s a lot in the pipeline,” he said. He could not reveal the size of the fund because of European regulations, but given the backing of Generali, it will be significant.
Frischknecht said the fund was focused on greenfield projects.
“We are only playing where we think there is a gap. There are a lot of investors who can hold renewable assets for the long haul. So we are focused on late stage development, through to construction and de-risking the assets,” he said.
Susteneo, he said, is a play on the Italian word for sustainability.
The fund’s chief operating officer, Twomey, who has worked at both ARENA and Elliott Green Power, as well as Atmos Renewables, said in a LinkedIn post: “Busy times ahead with an amazing team already up and running across Europe and Australia.”
Generali said the energy transition and growing demand for clean energy will require an unprecedented level of global investment – with up to $US4.5 trillion across the world every year from 2023 to 2030 to keep the path to net zero.
Most of this will be needed in Europe and the Asia Pacific.
“Sosteneo makes a perfect addition to our eco-system of asset management firms, where it brings unparalleled expertise in a strategic sector for the global energy transition such as equity investing in infrastructure,” said Carlo Trabattoni, the head of Asset and Wealth Management at Generali.
“With Sosteneo, we are concretely progressing in our commitment to support sustainable growth in Europe and beyond, by financing infrastructure projects essential to accelerate the path towards carbon neutrality and to secure wider availability of clean energy.”
Tamburrino said Generali’s status and history would encourage others to invest in their projects and funds.
“We are committed to delivering on our objective of providing attractive commercial returns whilst accelerating the transition to a clean energy future,” he said.
