Data center firm Rowan has secured investment from a Canadian pension fund.
Rowan owner Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners this week announced that University Pension Plan Ontario (UPP) has completed a co-investment in a Quinbrook portfolio company, Rowan Digital Infrastructure.
The financial terms of these transactions were not disclosed. The companies said UPP’s investment in Rowan will allow Quinbrook to “further advance its efforts” to provide solutions to help the transition to net-zero in energy-intensive industries.
UPP is a jointly sponsored defined benefit pension for Ontario’s university sector, managing CAD$11.7 billion in pension assets for its more than 40,000 members.
Set up in 2021 by Quinbrook and Birch Infrastructure, Rowan is developing a 300MW campus in Temple, Texas, and a four-building campus in Oregon. It is planning several large developments at Quantum Loophole’s data center park in Maryland.
“We are thrilled that UPP shares our focus on investing in energy infrastructure that helps support the net-zero transition and are very pleased to welcome them as a co-investor in Rowan, and to our broader infrastructure platform,” said John Lucas, managing director and North America regional lead for Quinbrook.
“The large load requirements of new-build data centers means that there is likely to be increasing investment in and demand for data centers powered by renewable energy. Rowan’s platform has been built and well placed to capture hyperscale customers’ demand for ‘build-ready’ sites powered by renewable energy solutions.”
Quinbrook said this investment builds on a partnership, after UPP’s investment in Quinbrook’s Net Zero Power Fund last year.
“Beyond adding important inflation-hedging properties to UPP’s investment portfolio, our investment in Rowan Digital Infrastructure provides a unique opportunity to help fund the critical infrastructure required for the growth of data centers with renewable energy sources,” added Peter Martin Larsen, senior managing director, head of private markets at UPP.
“This partnership underscores UPP’s dedication to making investments with strong and stable long-term returns for our members that can contribute to the decarbonization of key industries and the wider economy.”
Rowan has other developments listed on its website across North America (though some have since been removed) including data center projects Meriwether and Schwab in Oregon, Matterhorn in California, and Moriah, Cinco, and Brown in Texas.
Quinbrook, which manages investments in renewable energy and data centers across Australia, the UK, and the US, also has a large data center project in development in Queensland, Australia.
