Norway’s largest pension fund backs fund pursuing Australia’s biggest battery project

Oslo based funds manager KLP has invested 2 billion Norwegian kroner ($A300 million) into a Quinbrook renewables investment fund looking to build the biggest battery storage installation in Australia.

KLP, Norway’s largest pension fund, has $A105 billion in assets and is looking to invest $A1 billion a year into “climate-related investment”, which now account for eight per cent of its total.

The KPL money will go into into the Quinbrook Net Zero Power Fund, which is investing into some of the biggest solar plants in the US and the UK, as well as the Supernode project near Brisbane, which will serve data centres and could be the biggest battery storage facility – 2000MWh – in the country.

The 800MW/2000MWh “Supernode” battery project proposes to support data centres, provide dispatchable services to the grid,  firm additional renewables capacity, and act as a “backstop” to reduce the risk of power outages in Queensland.

Quinbrook is also proposing another 1,000MWh battery storage project at Lockyer, where an original idea to build a gas peaking plant has been converted into a plan to focus on battery storage.

Quinbrook was founded by two Australians and now ranks as one of the world’s leading renewable energy developers, with more than $US5 billion under management.

“We are excited to have their support as we devise and execute innovative new infrastructure investment strategies driving the energy transition in impactful ways that are delivering positive and measurable outcomes for the environment and the communities in which we operate,” Quinbrook co-founder David Scaysbrook said.