Norges Bank enters US renewables with Canadian duo

• Norges Bank Investment Management makes US renewables debut
• NBIM is investing in $2.6bn Northview along with Brookfield and BCI
• Investment in US renewables grows despite negative Trump policies

Investor interest in US renewable energy may have taken a hit after President Trump revealed policies to stymie wind and solar after his inauguration on 20^th January 2025.

But structural changes in US energy use, including higher demand for data centers in states including Texas and increased electrification of buildings and transport, meant that 2025 was not as bad as feared for the solar and wind industries. The result is we are still seeing big-name global investors entering the US renewables market.

This month, Norwegian sovereign wealth giant Norges Bank Investment Management, revealed it has made its first investment in US renewables. NBIM had paid $425m for a 33.3% stake in a vehicle to own a 2.3GW portfolio of 27 solar and five wind farms.

NBIM has invested with Canadian companies British Columbia Investment Management Corporation and Brookfield, each of which will take a 33.3% stake in the portfolio. The assets will be held in jointly-owned company Northview Power, and were acquired from Brookfield-owned developers Deriva Energy, Scout Clean Energy and Urban Grid.

NBIM said the portfolio had a total enterprise value of $2.6bn, and the 22 wind and solar assets are all backed by long-term power deals with investment-grade counterparties. It said the assets had a weighted average term remaining of 16 years on those deals.

Harald von Heyden, global head of energy and infrastructure at NBIM, said the deal is an “important step in diversifying our renewable energy infrastructure portfolio”.

Northview also has a ready-made pipeline of future assets. Brookfield said Northview has entered into a framework agreement to buy other assets from Brookfield-managed portfolio companies in the US and Canada, with up to $1.5bn of equity to deploy. These deals would focus on de-risked operating assets, including utility-scale solar projects, onshore wind farms and battery storage; and would all have stable and predictable long-term cashflows from investment-grade counterparties.

Jehangir Vevaina, chief investment officer in Brookfield’s renewable power and transition group, called Northview a “scalable platform” with a “clear growth pathway… to add de-risked high-quality, cash yielding assets delivering strong returns”.

Lincoln Webb, executive vice president and global head of infrastructure and renewable resources at BCI, said Northview was a “highly strategic addition to our infrastructure portfolio” and promised to be “resilient in an evolving energy landscape”. The deal requires regulatory approval. Northview is due to launch by the end of June.

Renewable energy in North America

The investment by NBIM in the US is interesting for a few reasons.

First, as we alluded to in the introduction, is that it is an interesting time to move into the US when the Trump administration has been making life more difficult for developers in the wind and solar sectors. For example, projects on federal and private land are being delayed by a freeze on permitting by parts of federal government including the Interior Department, according to ‘The New York Times’ in February. This is delaying hundreds of projects although the short-term impacts on NBIM and Northview should be minimal. Northview’s focus is on developments that are already operational and permitted, and it is not under pressure to rapidly grow its portfolio in response to investor pressure.

Second, Northview’s North America focus has a degree of built-in protection against any unsupportive US policies because its remit includes Canada. Last month, the Canadian Renewable Energy Association reported that only 1GW of wind, solar and storage were completed in 2025, with total installed capacity of 25GW at the end of last year. But the association predicted 8GW of additions by 2029 and 24GW of opportunities in the next decade. That is clearly not the same scale as the US, but it diversifies Northview’s risk.

Third, even a Trump-led permitting freeze cannot completely halt the growth of US solar and wind, so there will still be development opportunities for Brookfield-owned firms. In January 2026, Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported that investment in the energy transition in the US rose 3.5% year-on-year to $378bn in 2025.

Meanwhile, the US Energy Information Administration forecast that solar capacity in the country would grow 17% in 2026 and 23% in 2027, and wind would expand 6% in 2026 and 7% in 2027. Renewables will still be needed to meet the growing electricity demand of US data centres, industrial electrification and growing consumer power demand. This means US renewables should still be of interest to investors with a long-term view.

Fourth, the structure is interesting as it reminds us of opco-proco structures, where the renewables assets are developed by the ‘property company’ and are then flipped into an ‘operating company’ on completion. This enables the propco to recycle capital into new developments and realise an immediate return for its development work, while the opco then profits from the energy sales. At Northview, the long-term power contracts mean it should be relatively low risk, which is generally what attracts pension funds.

This model does not just give predictability to NBIM, BCI and Brookfield. It also means there are ready-made and hugely well-capitalised buyers for Deriva, Scout and Urban Grid’s new assets. That should be reassuring for those companies at a time of great upheaval in the US renewables sector and in the broader energy market following the war launched in the Middle East on 28^th February. This is likely to drive up the price of oil and gas, which could cause interest rates to spike and make it more expensive for companies to build new renewables. However, it could also make renewables a more attractive option for home-grown energy generation insulated from geopolitical risks.

The renewable energy industry has come through bigger challenges in the last decade, and NBIM’s interest in the US shows the country still offers investment opportunities.