The Taaleri SolarWind III Fund is an infrastructure fund investing in utility-scale wind, solar and battery storage assets.
The Taaleri SolarWind III Fund’s investment strategy is to acquire, develop, contract, construct, operate and exit a portfolio of utility scale onshore wind farms, photovoltaic solar parks and battery storage assets across the Fund’s target markets - Nordics & Baltics, Poland & Southeast Europe, Spain and Texas.
The Fund currently owns 60 projects, representing c. 6 GW in net generation capacity, which is approximately four times as many projects as the Fund will construct. Based on the portfolio, we expect to invest c. 50% of the Fund in the Nordics & Baltics, c. 25% in Poland & Southeast Europe, c. 15% in Spain and c. 10% in Texas.
The Taaleri SolarWind III Fund is a so-called “Dark Green” Fund classified as an Article 9 Fund under the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, which means that the fund has a sustainability objective and makes sustainable investments. The renewable energy power and storage plants that the Fund will construct will generate green electricity for around 1.3 million households, reduce an estimated 2.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, reduce air pollution, improve grid infrastructure, create local employment, generate local and state tax revenues and increase energy security.
The Fund held its second close in December 2023.
This Fund is a financial product, labelled as an Article 9 product according to EU SFDR regulation (2019/2088) and has an objective of making sustainable investments. The “do no significant harm” principle applies to all investments underlying the financial product, as they take into account the EU criteria for environmentally sustainable economic activities.
Sustainability-related disclosures
Summary
Taaleri Solarwind III is labelled as an Article 9 product according to EU SFDR regulation (2019/2088). The Fund has sustainable investment as an objective by developing, constructing, and operating renewable energy production and energy storage facilities. The Fund will therefore contribute to a significant CO2 emission offset or avoidance as well as balancing the electricity grid and electricity distribution during its lifetime and, under the EU Taxonomy, have a substantial contribution to the environmental objective of climate change mitigation. The Fund's strategy is to invest only in activities that make it possible to reduce or avoid CO2 emissions or to balance the electricity grid or electricity distribution by establishing the energy infrastructure required for enabling the decarbonisation of energy systems in accordance with Article 9, paragraph 3 of the SFDR regulation.
The Fund will make sustainable investments in accordance with the SFDR (2019/2088) and EU Taxonomy regulations (2020/852). Assets that the Fund invests are at the minimum share of 98% targeted to be allocated to sustainable investments with an environmental objective. Due to the nature of the investment activities, the minimum share is expected to be achieved within two to three years after the Fund's investment period has ended. However, some amount of cash (estimated at max. 2%) may be held in the Fund accounts at the end of any reporting period. At a minimum share, 93 % of the sustainable investment made are allocated to EU Taxonomy-aligned investments and 5% to investments that are sustainable investments but are not classified under the EU Taxonomy. EU Taxonomy does not have a classification for the projects in a development phase; therefore, those investments fulfil SFDR sustainable investment requirements.
The Fund's investments do not cause significant harm to any other sustainability objectives. This is ensured by a comprehensive internal and external due diligence assessment carried out prior to an investment decision and by considering all mandatory and two additional principal adverse impact indicators. All investments follow good governance practices and are committed to complying with the minimum safeguard criteria and implementing these.
The investment strategy targets control investments in utility-scale development, construction, and operational onshore wind farms and photovoltaic (PV) solar parks and energy storage facilities. The Fund's primary strategy is to invest in Portfolio Companies, primarily in Europe and the United States. According to the Fund's strategy, the Fund invests only in activities that make it possible to reduce or avoid CO2 emissions in accordance with Article 9, paragraph 3 of the SFDR regulation. The Fund is restricted from making investment decisions in technologies other than onshore wind farms and photovoltaic (PV) solar parks and energy storage facilities. The list of geographies is also restrictive.
The Fund's sustainable investment objective is monitored by collecting and reporting data on sustainability indicators. The fund investments' performance is monitored regularly and throughout the Fund's lifecycle.
The indicators that measure the Fund's sustainable investment objective have been determined based on the Fund's strategy. These sustainability indicators have been defined by evaluating which quantitative or qualitative quantities best describe the sustainability objective or the impacted sustainability factors and which indicators best describe the characteristics of the investments in the Fund.
Investments' lifecycle emission calculations and calculations related to principal adverse impacts may be based on partial forecasts and use multipliers and estimates so that they may involve a small amount of uncertainty or inaccuracy. However, these estimates describe in enough detail the magnitude and scale of measurements and thus sufficiently describe the attainment of the investment objective and do not hamper the attainment of these objectives.
To ensure that the investments fulfil the criteria for sustainable investments, they undergo thorough ESG-, technical-, financial-, tax, and legal -due diligence assessments. In addition, the manager is committed to reporting financial information and developing and implementing appropriate processes for managing and documenting good governance practices. To achieve the sustainable investment objective, used and monitored data are collected quarterly and reported annually.
The engagement policies concerning the Fund and its investees aim to ensure that the Fund's sustainable investment objective is realised and that the Fund nor its investments cause significant harm to the environment, society or employees, and that the activities do not violate human- or workers' rights, nor participate in corruption and bribery. The manager regularly monitors and audits our own operations and investments. No reference benchmark is designated to attain the sustainable investment objective of the financial product. Thus, the used sustainability indicators and investment targets fulfil the minimum standards common for EU climate transition benchmarks and EU Paris-aligned benchmarks and minimum standards for EU Paris-aligned benchmarks as defined in the (EU) 2020/1818 regulation. Target companies commit to setting and implementing science-based emission reduction plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2030.
The Taaleri SolarWind III Fund owns c. 60 early-, mid-, and late-stage wind, solar and battery storage development projects.