Danish pension administrator PKA backs massive Dutch offshore wind farm

Pensionskassernes Administration (PKA), the administrator of assets from five Danish pension funds, has made its third investment in offshore wind power, putting DKK900m (€120m) into a Dutch facility that will be the world’s second biggest when it comes on stream in 2016.

The wind park is called Gemini and will be built 85km north of the Dutch coast. Once completed, Gemini will have a capacity of 600MW – second only to the London Array project in the UK.

According to PKA, the park can meet the power demands of three northern Dutch provinces and will save 1.25m tonnes of CO2 emissions. “Gemini will also provide our members with a stable return for many years. It also fits well with our climate protection profile and will create jobs and growth,” said PKA chief executive Peter Damgard Jensen. PKA declined to say what kind of return it would get from Gemini specifically, but noted that, in general, it expected returns ranging between 5% and 9% from such investments.
The €120m provided by PKA will be in the form of a subordinated loan.The other €80m needed to finance the project is being put up by Northland Power Inc., a Canadian firm that specialises in renewable energy. Gemini is being developed by Amsterdam-based Typhoon Offshore.

“Gemini will provide our members with a stable return for many years”

Including Gemini, PKA has so far invested DKK5.5bn in offshore wind parks. The other two facilities in its portfolio are the newly activated 400MW Danish facility Anholt, of which PKA is part owner, and Butendiek, a 288MW offshore facility being constructed 32 kilometres west of the German island of Sylt.

A pension administrator, the PKA looks after DKK195.3bn in assets for five funds from Denmark’s health care and social services sectors. It has approximately 260,000 beneficiaries, 90% of whom are women. Link