New Zealand impact investment firm Purpose Capital has led a $NZ7.4 million syndicate investment in renewable energy company Lodestone Energy.
Other members of the syndicate were Tauhara North No2 Trust, Trust Horizon and investors in the Purpose Capital Impact Fund.
The syndicate’s follow-on investment takes its total investment in Lodestone to $NZ17.4 million.
The investment completes a $NZ55 million Series C capital raising for Lodestone Energy. Other investors in the round include Jarden Principal Investments, which is managing an investment from Fisher Funds, Accident Compensation Commission (ACC), K1W1 and ethical investment fund manager Pathfinder.
Purpose Capital executive director Bill Murphy said the investment would support Lodestone’s plans to “meaningfully increase the amount of solar energy generation in New Zealand”.
Lodestone’s Kohirā solar farm near Kaitāia in the Northland region is to date New Zealand’s largest while the company is developing other sites and working to secure further sites.
Kohirā – sun gatherer in Maori – comprises more than 61,000 solar panels supported by more than 6,500 piles across 64 hectares of an 80-hectare property. The installation has an AC capacity of 23.7MW and is expected to generate about 56GWh annually, enough energy to power more than 7,770 households. Seven hectares of the site will be replanted with native trees.
Purpose Capital investment manager Nick Pacey said: “While we acknowledge distributed rooftop solar has its place, you get approximately twice the amount of electricity for the same capital cost from doing solar at scale and in an optimised way.”
Purpose Capital aims to be a catalyst in the reallocation of capital from conventional investments to impact investments. The firm says that to date it has attracted more than $NZ20 million of co-investment into New Zealand impact investments which has taken its total assets under management to $NZ42 million.
Image: The Kohirā solar farm.