Climate Change Capital seeks €500m for renewable energy

Climate Change Capital (CCC) will raise up to €500 million to support medium-sized renewable energy projects in the European Union, according to market sources. The fund will probably invest in areas such as wind, solar, waste-to-heat and biomass, and may make investments alongside industrial partners.

CCC declined to comment on fundraising.

It will be the London-headquartered firm’s first traditional private equity fund devoted to the strategy, though it already has a stable of funds aiming to take advantage of opportunities arising from the transition to a low carbon economy. Among these are the Ventus VCT funds, which have just over £37 million (€40.2 million; $54.1 million) in capital under management and which target small renewable energy projects in the UK. Last month, CCC said that the Ventus funds would raise an additional £20 million of capital under an offering of “C” shares.  

The firm also has a €200 million cleantech-focused private equity fund, which focuses on early stage clean technologies and which is currently 15 percent invested in three deals: German solar PV film maker Sulfurcell; UK biogas plant operator Renewable Zukunft; and Power Plus Communications, a German developer of broadband powerline communications systems for smart grid applications.

In a recent interview, CCC chief investment officer Shaun Mays said investors wanted to access the climate change phenomenon but found it hard to do so. “There is a lot of enthusiasm for the sector,” he said. “Institutional investors tend to be underweight in infrastructure and especially clean infrastructure.”