The Qatar Investment Authority has committed $125 million investment to global energy storage provider Fluence.
Fluence intends to use the proceeds from the placement to further accelerate development of its product offerings, particularly digital products, and the deployment of existing products in more markets globally.
Fluence was formed in 2018 as a 50/50 JV between AES and Siemens. Each will maintain an approximately 44% percent stake following the completion of the transaction, which brings the company’s value to over $1 billion.
“We believe the global problem of climate change can only be tackled by leveraging the combined capabilities of technologists and investors from around the world,” said Manuel Perez Dubuc, Fluence’s chief executive officer in a statement.
“We see energy storage as the linchpin of a decarbonised grid and adding Qatar Investment Authority to our international shareholder base will allow Fluence to innovate even faster and address the enormous global market for large-scale battery-based energy storage.”
Fluence’s product offerings draw on the technologies from AES and Siemens. Its latest sixth generation technology stack is aimed to enable faster deployment of standardised, modular systems comprised of battery storage, an operating system and machine learning based digital intelligence.
In October, the company acquired Advanced Microgrid Solutions’ artificial intelligence based software and digital intelligence platform as an offering to enhance the performance of storage in energy markets.
The Qatar Investment Authority was one of the founding members of the One Planet Sovereign Wealth Fund Initiative, which was formed to accelerate the integration of climate change into investment decision making.
“We believe energy storage will play a key role in delivering cleaner, more sustainable and more resilient electric grids around the world,” says the Authority’s chief executive officer, Mansoor bin Ebrahim Al-Mahmoud.
The transaction is subject to the usual conditions and clearances.
