Rest invests $1bn towards renewable energy

Rest has announced a $1 billion investment in a renewable energy infrastructure manager, marking the next step in its decarbonisation journey.

The super fund’s commitment to Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, a renewable and clean energy infrastructure manager, aims to further support the energy transition.

It will provide exposure to assets including solar, battery projects, and green data storage centres, such as Quinbrook’s supernode green data campus in Brisbane. 

According to Andrew Lill, chief investment officer at Rest, sustainable digitisation is a crucial step for the global economy to move forward in an energy-efficient way.

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“In a world increasingly reliant on data and through the global growth in cloud-based technologies and AI, data centres have become big business and demand for this critical infrastructure is expected to accelerate,” Lill said.

“Repositories for the storage, management, and dissemination of data require significant investments and huge amounts of energy.”

The commitment to Quinbrook represents the fund’s contribution to achieving a net-zero carbon footprint by 2050, he added.

“Climate change mitigation, the energy transition, and the road to net zero are creating some great investment opportunities for our members. We represent more than a million members aged 30 or younger, who will retire after the year 2050,” Lill said.

Managed by a team of senior power industry professionals, Quinbrook focuses on:

• Creating solar energy.
• Maximising green data centres.
• Supporting renewables for energy-intensive industries.
• Distributed energy solutions.
• Acquisitions from the disruptive impacts of the energy transition.

In September, the fund also announced a new investment in the renewable energy fund Octopus Australia Sustainable Investments Fund (OASIS).

OASIS provides local and international institutional investors with exposure to Australia’s renewable energy transition. The fund invests in assets across wind, solar, and storage from development through to construction and operations.

This was part of a fundraising round by Octopus Australia that raised $250 million, bringing total funds raised over the last 12 months to $550 million on its renewables platform.

The CIO continued: “Combined with our existing Collgar Renewables and Octopus investments, this commitment builds on Rest’s track record in supporting the development of renewable energy infrastructure across Australia.”