What does the future look like with renewable energy investments?
This year in Wind Finland we’ll get to hear some serious money talk as the Investment Director Juha Känkänen from Ålandsbanken Funds Ltd. and Senior Transactions Associate Johannes Brunila from OX2 discuss about renewable energy investments and change in the investment climate. To get some tastings on what’s coming, we asked Känkänen and Brunila, what are the key drivers that affect the investment climate at the moment and what does the future look like?
“The green shift is the driver number one for future investments”, says Känkänen and continues that low interest rates and high liquidity in the lending market support the investment decisions.
Brunila adds that the lending market liquidity has a dual impact that simultaneously brings money available but also makes some traditional asset classes look less attractive for investors. “In aftermath, investors sit with more liquidity but less assets available within the traditional asset categories. For instance, one cannot simply rest money on government bonds or other traditional fixed income vehicles. And what comes to lower interest rates, we can see that it has been one key driver in the sector rotation towards assets with long-term awaited cash flows”, Brunila says.
About the future, Känkänen states that many seem to fear the inflation gradually picking up. “But there are also many factors that point to completely other direction. And generally, inflation is not necessarily a bad thing from investors’ perspective”, he adds.
“It is a really unforeseen market sentiment in many ways”, says Brunila and points out a mega trend that plays a key role in the transition – electrification of societies. “It will bring new challenges and opportunities that we cannot even think of today”, he says.
New concept to the test
In Wind Finland, Känkänen and Brunila will take the participants in the middle of mutual discussion and exchange of thoughts with their new dialogical presentation as the topics vary from how can wind power investments be boosted, what are the uncertainties in the financial model and consequences in the case of inflation.
“It is always nice to try something new in our events. Everybody has seen traditional presentations and panel discussions. We have also had interviews in the programme. This time we have a chance to follow a mutual discussion of two experts about a specified topic, financing”, comments Heidi Paalatie, the Chief Operating Officer of Finnish Wind Power Association.
Read more about Wind Finland speakers here.