Private market investment firm Schroders Capital’s infrastructure team in Asia on Thursday announced the first close of a China renewable energy strategy following a $100-million anchor commitment from Apple.
With $99.3 billion in assets under management (AUM) by year-end 2024, Schroders Capital aims to invest the actively-managed strategy in renewable infrastructure across China, targeting wind and solar assets at their late stage of development and construction, said the firm in a press release.
The strategy aims to add approximately 550,000 megawatt-hours of new wind and solar energy generation to China’s electrical grid annually. This generation is expected to grow as additional clients invest in the strategy.
In addition to contributing to a cleaner power grid in China, the strategy will help advance Apple’s ambition to achieve carbon neutrality across its entire carbon footprint by 2030, including its supply chain and product lifecycle.
The announcement came after Tim Cook wrote in a March 24 post on his Weibo social media account about the plan of a new clean energy fund, as two-thirds of Apple’s supply chain in China is already running on renewable energy. This coincided with a China visit by the Apple CEO in Beijing and Shanghai last month, where he met local suppliers like BYD Electronics and Chinese officials including commerce minister Wang Wentao.
The new China renewable energy strategy is modelled after the successful first China clean energy strategy, which Schroders Capital launched in partnership with Apple and its suppliers in 2018.
“China is now the largest country in the world for installed renewable energy generating capacity. This will continue to create investment opportunities which help accelerate our clients’ decarbonisation targets while delivering resilient cash flows,” said Yuyu Peng, Head of China Renewable Infrastructure at Schroders Capital Infrastructure Asia.
