With the Energiefonds Brabant, the province is working towards a sustainable North Brabant. The fund transforms promising ideas into concrete projects within the province through financial injections and professional support, both in the areas of energy generation, saving, and storage.
Koen den Houting and Ronald Vliegen, both Investment Managers at Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij / Energiefonds Brabant, speak of a ‘catalytic function’. Initiatives that would otherwise not get off the ground or are difficult to realise, and to which other parties hesitate to contribute, can still be accomplished.
“It’s not directly about the number of installed megawatts,” says Den Houting, “but more about demonstrating that a project works. We are successful if we get to the point where other financiers also step in and that a tangible project or pilot is realised that can be further replicated.”
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New technologies
After becoming operational in 2014, the Energiefonds Brabant initially focused primarily on solar and wind farms. “At that time, they were less advanced. Now, many more market players are actively involved,” says Den Houting.
For the Energiefonds Brabant, this was a reason to focus more on new technologies. The five-member investment team has a large network in the energy sector. Additionally, the team has experience in structuring and developing projects. Currently, the focus is primarily on the heat transition, energy savings, and storage.
Batteries at solar park
Recently, in collaboration with a technical partner, a battery was installed at solar park de Dassenberg in Bergen op Zoom. By smartly managing the battery – with a storage capacity of 4 megawatt-hours – it is charged and discharged at the right moments and used, among other things, to stabilise the power grid. The already overloaded electricity grid thus becomes more flexible and stable, helping to accelerate the energy transition.
With the increasing generation of sustainable energy, there is a growing imbalance in the grid and a continuous demand for batteries arises. The goal is therefore to add several battery projects to this collaboration.
“Where banks can rely on SDE++ subsidies from the government for other projects like solar fields and wind farms, this involves a rapidly developing market where the revenue model is less crystallised in advance,” notes Ronald Vliegen. “We are willing to accept this risk and can invest in it with equity, with risk capital.”
Green heat for business processes
The Energiefonds Brabant is incorporated as an Ltd within the Brabant Development Company (BOM). In 2019, it supported an initiative by the Bio Energy Plant Cuijk. Besides green electricity, the BECC also supplies green heat to companies in the industrial area of Haven Cuijk. They use the steam for their business processes.
Last year, the Energiefonds also financed the installation of a battery for energy storage, plus an electric boiler. When there is an abundance of green electricity, the e-boiler is charged to generate steam.
Koen den Houting: “In this project, you clearly see the breadth of our services: in addition to 'investing' we have also contributed significantly here as BOM from 'developing'. No one is simply waiting for a bag of money. To truly add value, you need to be able to bring 'smart money'.”
'Reinvesting earnings'
The Energiefonds now has a total of 39 projects in its portfolio, distributed across technologies such as wind, solar, energy saving, storage, and green gas. Of the 60 million euros available to the fund, about 40 million euros have been invested in recent years.
Ronald Vliegen: “The resources received from the projects are reinvested in new projects. We then contribute our knowledge and expertise to these. Thanks to the efforts of the Energiefonds Brabant, 320 million euros of market capital has now been activated.”
Fruit cultivation under solar panels
When it comes to investing, the fund has three options: use of equity capital (share capital); a subordinated loan; temporarily finance initiatives with insufficient scope to attract bank financing with a bridge loan from the fund.
Recently, a subordinated loan was granted to the 'Telen onder Zon' project in Olland; according to the investment managers, a good example of dual land use and innovation. By placing light-permeable solar panels on a high structure, space is created underneath for the cultivation of soft fruits such as berries, blackberries, or raspberries. These usually grow under plastic film. In this way, the fruit is protected against storms, hail, or extreme heat, while the panels generate green energy and the film becomes unnecessary.
Although a bank is involved in this initiative, additional capital was needed to complete the financing. By providing a loan, the Energiefonds Brabant ensured the realisation of 'Telen onder Zon'. Construction is currently underway in Olland for this groundbreaking project by European standards.
Public Development Company: ‘local ownership’
This summer, together with the province, a success was also achieved in Central Brabant. It was decided with a large number of municipalities to establish a Public Development Company.
The Public Development Company will develop energy hubs (including wind farms). The goal of the company is to speed up the energy transition on the one hand, and to maintain control on the other. This allows for ‘local ownership’ to be secured: residents are involved in the planning and decision-making, but also benefit (financially) from the green electricity.
“We were asked to support the launch of the development company. In addition to capital – the Energiefonds Brabant is a co-shareholder – we also bring our project development expertise,” says Den Houting.
Invest at least 1 million
In order to offer not only capital but also knowledge and expertise in structuring and development, a project must have considerable scale. The fund aims to invest at least 1 million euros per project. The investment size is important because processes incur costs. This way, the Energiefonds Brabant can continue to deliver added value and thus contribute to the energy transition in North Brabant.
This article was previously written by and published on Energiewerkplaats Brabant.