By Nora Buli
OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s $1.8 trillion wealth fund, the world’s largest, remains committed to investments in renewable assets despite recent market setbacks and will seek opportunities in both the listed and private markets, a senior fund official said on Thursday.
Renewable energy assets have significantly underperformed in the market in 2024, with some previous investor favourites such as Danish offshore wind developer Orsted taking big hits to their valuations.
The fund’s own investments in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure, which includes stakes in offshore wind farms with Orsted and in Spanish utility Iberdrola’s renewables portfolio, posted on Wednesday a negative return of -10% for 2024.
Despite the negative returns recently, the fund remains committed to renewables, saying it makes sense in the long-term.
“We think that’s smart also for a very, very long-term investor … All of our investments are dependent on an orderly energy transition,” Harald von Heyden, the fund’s global head of energy and infrastructure told a conference in Oslo.
“You can probably buy renewable assets much cheaper now if you buy them as shares,” he added.
Meanwhile, the volatility in the private market was smaller, and being active in both the public and in the private markets should offer some good deals going forward, he added.
The fund plans to do this and has recently restructured to merge its unlisted and listed renewable energy investment teams.
Since 2020, the fund is allowed by the Norwegian parliament to invest in unlisted renewable projects, as long as they are in Europe or in the United States.
“It’s been a slow start. We’ve held back. We’ve not been sure that we’ve been in the right place in (the) cycle,” von Heyden said, but added the fund was seeing more opportunities now, while the team has grown from 15 to 20 people.
The fund sees offshore wind as still the best strategic target, as it is Europe-based and offers a large series of partners.
“But we also want to do deals in the other renewable energy infrastructure technologies. And enabling technologies such as grid and storage,” von Heyden said.
(Reporting by Nora Buli; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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