Norway pushes into renewables with $1.6 billion deal

OSLO: Norway’s $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund has made its first direct investment in a renewable energy project, a new asset class for the world’s largest state-owned investor, it said on Wednesday.

The fund bought a 50 percent stake in the Borssele 1 and 2 offshore wind farm off the Netherlands for €1.375 billion ($1.63 billion) from Denmark’s Orsted, which will continue to co-own and run the facility.

Such direct investments are new for the fund, which until last year, was only allowed by parliament to invest in stocks, bonds and property.