Talanx invests in Swedish hydropower in renewable push

Industrial lines insurer  Talanx Group has invested in a Swedish hydropower, in a bid to diversify and expand its European portfolio and commitment to renewable energy.

Talanx is investing via Ampega Asset Management in the green electricity produced by a portfolio of 15 hydro plants located on three Swedish river systems. The transaction volume for the 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) is in the three-figure millions of euros.

Talanx’s partners in the deal are Augusta Investment Management and German energy company Uniper. The latter owns and operates the plants, which have been feeding electricity into the Swedish grid for a few decades. Augusta, which initiated the transaction, has a two terawatt hour portfolio of similar investments and substantial experience of hydro plants in northern Europe. It has been engaged as the asset manager for the duration of the investment.

Talanx said the innovatively structured investment expands the group’s support for the transition to green energy and its role as a renewables investor.

“This transaction is particularly important for the Talanx Group: our first investment in hydropower adds a new dimension to our existing extensive portfolio of renewable energy investments,” said Jan Wicke, Talanx AG’s chief financial officer. “As a leading investor in this area, we are helping to continuously expand investments in renewables and increasingly contributing to the transition to sustainable energy. The move also underscores just how important ESG criteria are to our investment strategy and reinforces our wide-ranging sustainability strategy even further.”

The transaction volume for the 15 river hydro plants corresponds to an annual electricity generation figure of approximately 350 gigawatt hours. This is the equivalent of the electricity consumed by the eastern Swedish city of Umeå, for example, which has roughly 84,000 inhabitants.

Sweden is an attractive market for hydropower investments: 45 percent of the electricity consumed by the country each year is generated in its more than 2,000 hydro plants. In line with this, the country has a highly developed renewal energy market with a stable legal framework.

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