ABP contributes to the financing of the energy transition in the Netherlands through the ABP Netherlands Energy transition fund (ANET), among other vehicles. For ABP, it is clear that enie.nl will play a key role in the further necessary growth of solar energy in the Netherlands and abroad. Solar panels currently make up only 9.5% of the total electricity production in the Netherlands. However, solar power is an inexhaustible source of clean energy which will be increasingly used more often.

‘Shell wants to play an active role in the quickly changing energy landscape, and this is a reason for us to fully invest in innovative companies of the future. We have become interested in enie.nl by its fast growth in recent years, the obvious combination of sun, energy storage and electric charging, and its ambition to expand internationally in the coming years to the consumer and SME markets’, explains Jermaine Saaltink of Shell Ventures.

The brothers Patrick and Milan van der Meulen — once inspired by the climate documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” — founded enie.nl with the mission to make solar energy available to everyone and, in this way, to make the most positive impact possible for solving the climate problem. ‘As a social enterprise, we are continuously looking for ways to increase our impact in the world. How much more impact can you have if one of the largest energy companies in the Netherlands and the largest pension fund in the Netherlands support your mission? The fact that ABP and Shell — each with their own convictions and with the support of their own knowledge and networks — are now focusing on this effort is a new milestone for us, but especially for the energy transition’, according to Patrick van der Meulen, founder and CEO of enie.nl.

The team was led by Thomas van Hövell, who was assisted by Annemarie Janssens, Oscar Vranken, Bart de Hek, Sam van der Weiden, Corianne Netze-Ritsema and Allard van Duijn.