BlackRock Raises $1 Billion For Clean Power as Wind, Solar Boom

(Bloomberg) -- Here's the latest indicator of how hungry investors are to profit from clean energy: BlackRock just raised $1 billion for wind, solar and battery-storage projects.

The world's largest money manager received initial commitments from over 35 institutional investors in North America, Europe and Asia for its third global renewables fund. It's the most BlackRock has raised yet for a clean-power fund's first close.

Renewable energy is becoming “one of the most active sectors in infrastructure,” said David Giordano, global head of BlackRock renewable power. It comes, he said, “as global power generation shifts from two-thirds fossil fuels to two-thirds renewables over the next few decades.”

Clean-energy investments have surged as much of the world pushes to move beyond fossil fuels to fight climate change. Wind, solar and other forms of renewable power will attract about $322 billion annually through 2025, according to the International Energy Agency. That's almost triple the $116 billion a year that will go into fossil-fuel plants.

Read More: Clean Energy Investment Is Set to Hit $2.6 Trillion This Decade

BlackRock Real Assets aims to raise a total of $2.5 billion for the fund, Giordano said. Its renewable power group manages $5.5 billion in assets. Its first renewables fund raised $611 million and is full invested. The second one raised $1.65 billion and has committed nearly all of it.

--With assistance from Annie Massa.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Eckhouse in New York at beckhouse@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Joe Ryan, Reg Gale

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