Impact themes

Triodos Renewables Europe Fund is mitigating the effects of climate change by investing in renewable energy capacity, energy efficiency and flexibility. Each quarter the number of gigawatt hours and CO₂ emission produced or avoided are reported to investors.

Vincent van Haarlem explains: “We are doing our utmost to accelerate the energy transition throughout Europe and the achievement of the Paris Agreement goals, to limit global warming to below 2°C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C. The new impact report 2018 'Accelerating the energy transition' presents a detailed overview of our efforts in this regard.”   

Investment focus

In 2018, the market’s awareness and interest about climate change mitigation solutions, measures and approaches grew, according to Van Haarlem, who tells that energy transition and expansion beyond renewable energy generation is also part of his fund’s investment strategy. “Energy efficiency and flexibility projects have become a stronger investment focus for the Triodos Renewables Europe Fund. We also target new projects rather than existing ones to accelerate the speed at which the transition can occur.”

Partnering for climate action

“We work collaboratively with manufacturers, producers and developers. These partnerships are very important for the delivery of long-term structural change in energy systems and efficiency,” he says.

During the year the fund enabled the upgrade of traditional lighting to LED across 17 municipalities in Spain. The project involved the implementation of more energy efficient lighting systems in municipal buildings and public streets and included an automatic dimming system after midnight.

Describing another successful collaboration, Van Haarlem tells: “During the year we also financed the construction of a suite of roof-top solar installations in the Netherlands, together with our long-standing partner SolarAccess. The panels will be installed on the roofs of customer company buildings and form part of their sustainability strategy and energy related goals. The electricity generated will sold back to them. When realised, the installations have the potential to produce more than 30 GWh of clean energy per annum.”

“We’re also working on the redevelopment of wind farms in the Netherlands, Germany, France and the UK. “It’s early stages but we will repower the farms with newer and larger turbines that generate more clean energy. Most of the old turbines will be reused at different locations.”

What’s next?

Van Haarlem wants to grow the fund to more than EUR 100 million in the next 12 months and sees a lot of continued activity in the Dutch and Spanish markets. “We want to repower more wind farms. They are very large projects, but they take time, around three to four years from start to realisation. I’d like to see us hit some key milestones and get close to construction on some of them,” he says. He also shares: “We want to realise more energy efficiency projects and are already working on opportunities in new flexibility methods like storage batteries and demand-side response solutions.”

For more information about the fund’s financial performance, please download the annual report.

About the fund

Triodos Renewables Europe Fund aims to mitigate the effects of climate change by increasing the generation of clean energy and reducing CO₂ emissions. It invests in wind farms, solar photovoltaic and solar thermal installations throughout Europe. The installations are usually privately owned and/or operated by a special-purpose vehicle. At the end of 2018 the fund had achieved a strong financial return of 9.5% and had net assets of EUR 82.7 million.