Energy efficient infrastructure sector has ‘enormous potential’

The digital infrastructure sector has ‘enormous potential’ but companies need to work on energy efficiency, Christopher Garbe, managing partner, Garbe Industrial Real Estate, told Real Asset Insight’s Richard Betts.

“We have a good track record in execution and we have developed a hyperscale data centre for Google, which is one of the most energy-efficient in Europe,” said Garbe. “Infrastructure in general, and digital infrastructure in particular, is becoming more popular among investors.”

The logistics sector also has the potential to become ever more energy efficient. “We started putting PV panels on the roofs of our assets five years ago, and we use heat pumps and LED lighting,” said Garbe. “But now we can use hydrogen and add wind turbines and we are determined to remain at the forefront of the transition to renewable energy.”

In the last year the group has “pivoted”, he said: “We used to be dependent on German institutional capital but we’ve been looking more at international investors and private equity and it’s going very well. There’s a lot of equity available for projects that offer higher returns, so we are very busy on the development side.”