Deals in past year include acquisition of 40% stake in the East Anglia 1

Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG) has been involved in nearly €3bn of deals supporting energy decarbonisation in global markets over the past year.

In its second annual progress report GIG detailed deals and projects totalling €2.65bn that it has structured and arranged from between August 2018 to September 2019.

They include the acquisition of a 40% stake in the East Anglia 1 (pictured) offshore wind farm.

With this transaction GIG said it has supported nearly 50% of total UK offshore wind capacity in operation or construction.

Other key transactions include the acquisition of a 43MW wind farm in Hornamossen in Sweden, taking the total of renewable energy power purchase agreements sourced and structured by GIG in Sweden to nearly 1GW.

In its report GIG also highlighted debut project acquisitions in Norway and Poland, the debt financing of a battery storage project in California, US, and the first listed renewables yieldco in sub-Saharan Africa.

On 25 September 2019 and as part of the commitments made at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, Macquarie announced its intention to develop a 20GW pipeline of new renewable energy projects through GIG.

Many of these projects are expected to be backed by corporate PPAs arranged by GIG and around a fifth of the overall pipeline is expected to be sourced in emerging market countries.

GIG global head Mark Dooley said: “2019 may well be remembered as the year that the climate emergency truly entered the public consciousness.

“GIG’s mission to accelerate the transition to a greener global economy has never been so urgent, or critical.

“Our commitment to develop a pipeline of 20 GW over the next five years is a central part of our efforts to help deliver a rapid increase in the pace and scale of renewable energy developments coming forward, particularly in emerging markets.

"Alongside this, we continue to support the growth of the global PPA market and evolve our advisory services to meet the increasing demand for green impact reporting.”