Tilting in towards a greener future

Tilt Renewables is a major developer, owner, and manager of renewable energy generation assets, and as part of the PowAR partnership, Aware Super has significantly increased its stake in PowAR. The investment is an important one, because it gives us exposure to Tilt Renewables’ wind and solar assets and its significant development pipeline, therefore strengthening our commitment to supporting Australia’s transition to a low-carbon economy.

PowAR is a dedicated renewable energy investment vehicle and was set up for exactly this purpose – to facilitate and encourage investment in renewable energy and to help Australia transition to a low-carbon economy. It was already the largest owner of wind and solar generation in Australia, and now has 1,300 MW of operational capacity across nine wind and solar assets, and more than 3,500 MW of capacity in the development pipeline.

Increasing our members’ investment exposure to high quality assets such as Tilt, aims to generate strong returns and continue to grow your super, as there is a strong forecast demand for sustainable energy generation in Australia.

Australia is at a relatively early stage of the journey towards de-carbonisation of power generation, and major players like PowAR are likely to play a significant role in creating the 50 gigawatts (GW) of new low-cost renewable energy we need to replace our coal-fired generation fleet by 2040. PowAR is now the largest player in the sector, and is highly diversified, with wind and solar assets spread across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. From an investment perspective we expect PowAR to benefit from the scale, diversification and growth opportunities the Tilt acquisition brings, and that this will help deliver strong returns for our members.

There’s no longer a question that climate change is a significant risk to the planet – and that the flow-on effects to investment performance and your retirement outcomes are serious risks we need to address. We aim to do this by taking up investment opportunities in renewable energy and low-carbon technology investments, which we believe will deliver strong long-term returns.

Our other investments in the renewables sector during the 2021-2022 financial year include approximately $A268 million in green and sustainability-linked bonds. Two examples of these bonds are:

• $A20 million KFW green bond, which is financing projects in the areas of climate change and the environment, globalization, social change, digitalization and innovation. These have included wind energy projects (onshore and offshore); photovoltaic panels; hydropower or biogas energy; electricity and heat generated from solid biomass, biogas; geothermal; grids and plants for the storage of heat and power, and feed-in by renewable energy. 
• $A50 million Queensland Treasury Corp (QTC) green bond, which is supporting Queensland’s transition to a low-carbon, climate resilient and environmentally sustainable economy and specifically funding projects including the Sunshine Coast Solar Farm and Gold Coast Light Rail.  

And to support our efforts in addressing the Climate Change risks to our investments, we have also fully divested from thermal coal miners.