Earth Day 2025: Our Power, Our Planet
Earth Day, observed on April 22nd, is a worldwide campaign to protect the environment by increasing awareness and promoting constructive change. Each year Earth Day adopts a new theme centred around a critical environmental issue, with this year’s theme being “Our Power, Our Planet”. The focal point of this is renewable energy, with the aim of encouraging people around the globe to consider the revolutionary potential of renewable energy in halting climate change and promoting sustainable development.
The North East Scotland Pension Fund (NESPF) is committed to being a responsible investor. With investments in renewable energy and participating in cooperative initiatives, the Fund supports measures to strive for a cleaner, greener future.
Our Achievements
The NESPF actively invests in renewable energy projects, including wind, solar, and energy-from-waste infrastructure. We have allocated approximately £200 million to direct renewables holdings, supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy and providing potential financial rewards.
The Fund has invested just under £1 million to install 3,000 photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of a distribution warehouse in Wolverhampton. These panels will produce 979,200 kWh of electricity per annum, enough to boil a kettle 8,901,818 times or power 268 average UK households annually. This initiative will save 248 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, equivalent to planting 1,550 trees. The electricity generated is sold to the tenant, with any excess sold to the grid, showcasing a significant energy and carbon improvement within our property portfolio.
Innovative Grid Infrastructure Investment
The NESPF has an investment in a synchronous compensator asset in Scotland. A synchronous compensator is a rotating machine that does not produce electricity, rather it helps manage the stability of the national grid including the relationship between voltage/current and the resilience of the system to sudden faults. This type of asset is a major step in improving and maintaining grid stability. As we work to integrate intermittent renewable energy sources into the UK power system and decarbonise electricity, this technology is essential for transition to a low carbon and cleaner energy system.
NHS energy Centres
The Fund owns energy centres on NHS hospital sites with one of these being local at the Foresterhill Health Campus Hospital. These energy centres supply heat and power meaning a reduction in Health Board energy costs and CO2 emissions. By using modern gas-fired Combined Heat and Power boilers, energy is produced in an efficient way, with heat created as a bi-product of electricity generation and distributed locally.
Harnessing Renewable Energy
The world's energy needs are growing, and relying on fossil fuels is no longer sustainable. Renewable energy sources like solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, and tidal power offer viable solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change.
The NESPF as a responsible investor, is a member/signatory of various ESG initiatives such as Climate Action 100+, where collaboration with other investors helps to influence companies across a range of ESG themes, including renewable energy impact.
You can read more about our role as a responsible investor here.
