Green energy investment from the Wales Pension Partnership

The Wales Pension Partnership (WPP), a collaboration of the local government pension schemes in Wales, will invest c.£68m into onshore wind Energy Parks being developed by Welsh renewable energy business Bute Energy.

Based in the centre of Cardiff, Bute Energy is making the Welsh weather work for Wales, developing onshore wind projects that will generate clean, green energy, supporting the Welsh Government’s target for electricity to be 100% renewable by 2035.

Bute Energy has a vision of a healthier, wealthier Wales that uses renewable energy generation as a positive power for this and future generations.  The company is acting now, taking positive proactive steps to help address the climate emergency and the cost-of-living crisis, while investing in rural communities in Wales to help them have a healthy future.

Councillor Ted Palmer, Chair of the Wales Pension Partnership Joint Governance Committee

“We are at a critical time for society as we attempt to address climate change and the cost-of-living crisis, while creating green, skilled jobs. This investment in Bute Energy projects means that our members are contributing to addressing all of these issues while also retaining the wealth from renewable energy in Wales.  

“This will deliver ethical investments and will contribute to the wellbeing of future generations in Wales – as well as meeting Welsh Government targets on local and shared ownership of renewable energy projects.”

Bute Energy’s Energy Parks and electricity grid projects are expected to attract up to £3bn of direct investment into Wales, delivering a material boost for economic growth and employment for the Welsh economy. The projects will generate jobs during their construction phase and skilled long-term jobs during their operational phase, at locations across Wales. In addition, we expect that Wales will also benefit from a significant number of indirect jobs associated with such investment.

Once operational, the Energy Parks are expected to deliver approximately £800m of Community Benefit Funding to the communities living closest to the projects and will generate enough clean, green electricity to offset more than 2.6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions a year – equivalent to c.7% of Wales’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

Oliver Millican, Chairman of the Bute Energy Group said:

“We’re delighted to welcome this public sector investment in renewable energy in Wales. Public sector workers across the country are investing in projects that will generate clean, green energy that homes, businesses, schools and hospitals will need in the future. They arenot only investing in their future, but also the health and wellbeing of future generations in Wales.

“At Bute Energy our ambition is to power Wales with clean green energy, and empower our communities through investment, jobs, and skills. We share WPP’s values of long term, stable and sustainable investment.

“Just like Wales was at the heart of the first industrial revolution, it has all the natural resources, skills and innovative thinking to lead the Green Revolution. The Welsh Government is determined that the benefit, valueand wealth from this green revolution will come to and stay in Wales and this investment will help to guarantee that.”

The renewable energy projects that WPP is investing in will help deliver clean green energy to the people of Wales and beyond, addressing some of this generation’s biggest challenges and help to create a better world for future generations.  This investment will contribute to the Welsh Government’s targets for electricity to be 100% renewable by 2035 and contribute to targets for 1GW of renewable electricity and heat capacity to be locally owned by 2030. There is wide political support in Wales for pension funds to invest in projects that respond to the climate emergency, with a Senedd debate and vote in May 2022 in favour of the divestment of public sector pension schemes from fossil fuels and stronger investment into the renewables sector.

WPP has been advised by independent clean energy asset manager Capital Dynamics and by the law firms TLT LLP and Burges Salmon LLP.

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), one of Europe’s biggest renewable energy investors, has previously announced that it is investing in the development of Bute Energy’s projects, and, through this transaction, WPP will now become a joint investor alongside CIP in Bute Energy’s Energy Parks.