Aviva Investors joins with Irish renewables firm Astatine in €800m partnership

Aviva Investors has partnered with Irish renewable energy infrastructure firm Astatine on an €800 million energy transition platform.

The partnership is aimed at creating a single platform to fund and deliver renewable energy projects in Ireland, the UK and across Europe.

It will focus on the delivery of energy infrastructure projects in the power, heat and transport sectors. This will be achieved by funding, delivering and operating renewable energy assets in high energy-use sectors such as data centres, the dairy industry, cement manufacturers and the pharmaceutical sector.

Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva plc, will be the majority shareholder in the entity and will provide the financial backing for the projects.

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Dublin-headquartered Astatine will lead on the delivery, design and operation of the energy assets. This will include solar farms, energy storage systems, heat pumps and industrial electric vehicle (EV) charging to enable commercial EV fleets.

The platform will launch with a seed portfolio of 128 megawatts of assets which are expected to be operational within the next two years. A further 500 megawatts of projects will be delivered over the lifetime of the fund.

“Industrial energy users are under increasing pressure to reduce cost, while delivering climate and energy security targets,” said Tom Marren, the chief executive and co-founder of Astatine, which employs more than 120 people and has delivered projects for Pernod Ricard, Dale Farm, and Engie.

Mr Marren said the partnership would mean customers have “a single company which will deliver solutions across their power, heat and transport requirements”.

He added: “By combining Aviva Investors’ financial strength with our development expertise, we can accelerate the delivery of projects to assist with increasing competitiveness for Europe’s industrial base.”

Angenika Kunne, head of infrastructure equity for Aviva Investors, said the energy infrastructure the “innovative” partnership will offer can “help whole sectors manage their energy transition journey in a cost-effective way”.