Agenda item
Member Training - Renewable Energy Infrastructure Training - Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners
Minutes:
Ms Miriam Adams, Interim Head of Pensions and Treasury introduced the item stating that following LBTH Pensions Fund expression of interest to join a renewable energy fund, a fund was set up by the London CIV in March 2021. Ms Adams said there are four managers who make up the Fund, Storebrand, Quinbrook, Foresight and BlackRock. She said the Board would be hearing from Quinbrook who would be providing an insight to renewable energy plus benchmarks relating to how they manage this asset class.
Members of the Board then heard from Mr Mark Burrows, European Head of Capital Formation at Quinbrook and Ms Rosalind Smith-Maxwell, Vice-President of the Investment Team in London. Mr Burrows and Ms Smith-Maxwell gave a presentation on various types of renewable energies available, the need to invest in new sources of energy by the National Grid and the effect renewable energy was having on global markets. Mr Burrows said the UK market was ahead of the curve and investment in different types of energy sources, such as solar and offshore wind had piqued interest, with a ground swell of political will to drive forward this change.
In response to questions from members the following was noted:
- In reference to Geo-thermal energy, Mr Thompson asked why growth for this type of energy was low. Ms Smith-Maxwell responded stating the cost was high in comparison with the solar and offshore wind categories. Geo-thermal refers to ground source heat pumps, which requires boring/drilling incredibly deep wells and large circular ones at surface level. Ms Smith-Maxwell said these were in development but there needed to be significant support to reduce the Capx cost to make it deployable at scale.
- In response to why Tidal wave technology and Hydro power were not being invested in, Ms Smith- Maxwell stated this again was due to the cost. She said many industrial backers had lost money in the research and development of tidal technology and there was some way to go to before the technology could be commercially viable. Ms Smith-Maxwell said the stress the blades undergo with tidal technology means there is a high level of breakage and therefore this technology is not considered to be reliable and/or affordable when compared to solar and offshore technologies.
- In response to if the National Grid was up to the challenge over the next 10 to 25 years to achieve a green revolution, Ms Smith-Maxwell said the National Grid had an ambitious plan to be carbon-free by 2025. She said they had a pathfinder programme to take this forward. She said the three areas of focus were EnerSure, constraint and voltage control. Ms Smith-Maxwell said they had identified these areas, as areas that required resolution and investment to enable more renewable energy to come online and for consumers to still have affordable and reliable power. Ms Smith-Maxwell said they were identifying projects to invest in, which were Index linked and would achieve the best outcome for the industry and consumers.
The Chair, Mr John Jones thanked Mr Burrows and Ms Smith-Maxwell for their presentation and said the presentation provided a useful insight to how the renewable energy markets worked and how investments in this asset class can be beneficial to the Fund.