Taaleri’s SolarWind II Fund Sees Third Close at EUR 320 Million

The Taaleri SolarWind II fund has held the third closing with approximately EUR 320 million in total commitments.

The Taaleri SolarWind II fund has held the third closing with approximately EUR 320 million in total commitments. The third-close investors include Obligo Global Infrastuktur II Fund, YLE Pension Fund, the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO), institutional and high net worth investors and the Taaleri Group. Additionally, the Finnish Church Pension Fund joined the fund in June 2020.

NEFCO will join EBRD in the Taaleri SolarWind II CEE fund. This parallel fund invests alongside the main fund in investments in the Baltics, Poland and Southeast Europe.

With a number of institutional investors currently in active due diligence, it is expected that there will be continued demand in future closings. The Taaleri SolarWind II fund will remain open to new investors until June 2021 and has a hard cap of EUR 400 million.

The Taaleri SolarWind II fund invests in utility-scale wind and solar assets. The fund will invest in a diversified portfolio of predominantly ready-to-build assets in Europe (c.80 percent) and in the US (c.20 percent). The fund has already secured its first seven investments, in ready to build wind farms in Finland (3), Norway, the US, Poland and in a ready to build a solar farm in Spain.

It is estimated that the fund will finance approximately 850 MW of renewable energy capacity, which will offset over 1 million tonnes of CO₂ annually throughout the 25+ year lifetime of the assets.

“We have committed to the first seven investments from the fund and with an extensive active deal pipeline across all of our target markets we would expect this investment pace to continue in 2021,” comments Kai Rintala, Managing Director, Taaleri Energia.

In March, we had reported that the Taaleri SolarWind II fund had held a successful second closing in February 2020, with approximately EUR 275 million in commitments.

In June, the fund together with AIP, Ilmarinen, and Akuo Energy acquired 93 percent of the equity in the Escalade wind farm in Texas. Taaleri Energia, the project developer, will retain a minority stake in the project.

The project will consist of 45 Vestas V162 5.6 MW turbines and 20 Vestas V150 4.2 MW turbines and represents a USD 450 million-plus investment in the North American renewable power sector. The construction work is scheduled to begin during Q2 2020 with the wind farm reaching operational status in Q4 2021. The wind farm’s annual production of electricity will be approximately 1270 GWh. It will produce enough electricity to supply around 115,000 households and will offset the equivalent of 604,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide during each year of operation.