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intermittent wind and solar power. to an existing reservoir. It is strategically located
“The Dungowan pumped hydro storage between retiring coal capacity to the south and
power plant will help facilitate new wind and emerging wind and solar capacity to the east,
solar projects and provide firming and grid sup- west and north.”
port services at a critical point on the Australian The Walcha Energy project as a whole could
National Electricity Market,” said Simon Currie, provide up to 15% of New South Wales’ power
managing director at Energy Estate, one of the requirements, GE said, effectively displacing the
partners in Walcha Energy. output of the coal-fired Liddell Power Station,
“The project represents a unique opportunity which is slated for closure.
to tap into a high-head site, in close proximity
RENEWABLES
Blackrock raises
Vestas stake to 5.1%
GLOBAL
THE world’s largest fund manager now has just company’s sustainable energy arm, told Finan-
over 10mn shares in the OEM, requiring Vestas cieele Dagblad.
to confirm publicly that Blackrock is a major BlackRock did not say it where it would
shareholder, as required by Danish law. invest, but Financieele Dagblad said it was likely
Blackrock, which has $7.32 trillion under it would back a wind farm off the Zeeland coast,
management, has slowly been maintaining its near Borssele.
interests in Vestas in recent years. In August In 2016, Blauwwind, which is backed by
2012, it held 5.04% of Vestas’ shares, while in Royal Dutch Shell and Eneco, was awarded a
October 2014 its holding stood at 4.94%. permit to build and operate two sites in the Bors-
With Vestas shares costing DKK838 ($128) sele wind farm zone.
in Copenhagen on August 5, BlackRock’s invest- BlackRock, which has a large amount of
ment in the company is worth DKK8.38bn Dutch pension fund money under management,
($1.28bn). said wind and solar farms are gaining in popular-
BlackRock has a wide exposure to the wind ity as reliable, alternative investments.
sector, and at the start of 2020 led the global The Dutch government now expects wind to
investor drive to invest in sustainability, declar- provide 16% of the country’s electricity needs by
ing that climate risk is now investment risk. 2023.
It has recently increased its stake in NAS- By that year, total offshore wind capacity will
DAQ-listed SolarEdge Technologies, an Isra- have reached 4.7 GW. By 2030, total capacity will
el-based photovoltaic (PV) inverters supplier, have increased further to 11 GW, which repre-
to 10.3%. sents 40% of the total demand for electricity in
Meanwhile, Dutch media reported this week the Netherlands.
that BlackRock was considering investing in a CrossWind, a consortium also made up of
Dutch offshore wind farm. Shell and Eneco, last week said it would build its
The investor has already invested $6bn in third un-subsidised wind farm in the Dutch area
sustainable energy projects and an investment of the North Sea, developing a 750-MW project
of over €1bn in a Dutch project is now being that would also include storage and hydrogen
looked at, Freek Spoorenberg, head of the production.
Week 31 05•August•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9
