By Virginia Furness and Simon Jessop

LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - Alterra, one of the world's biggest private climate funds has made its second direct investment in Europe through Italian renewable energy firm Absolute Energy and plans more deals ahead, its chief executive told Reuters.

The fund, set up in 2023 by the United Arab Emirates with $30 billion, has so far invested $6.5 billion, mostly through climate and transition funds run by leading global investment firms BlackRock BLK.N, Brookfield BN.TO, and TPG TPG.O.

The deal for Absolute Energy will have the fund investing $50 million in direct equity from its Acceleration Fund alongside U.S. infrastructure firm I Squared Capital. The investment will help accelerate the development of an initial 1.4 gigawatts in solar and battery storage across Italy.

Until now, Alterra had only directly invested in two companies - $100 million each in Indian renewables platform Evren and French renewables company Neoen- but it now plans to scale up, Majid Al Suwaidi said.

"We are now transitioning from the first phase of the development of Alterra into a new phase in our work," he said.

"This is our third co-investment so far in rapid succession... it's really charting a new path for us."

Absolute Energy's initial project is expected to reduce climate-damaging emissions by up to 380,000 tons a year and it has a broader development plan of 6 GW, Alterra said.

Set up at the UAE-hosted COP28 climate talks, Alterra, which now has a team of 14, aims to mobilise $250 billion globally by 2030 to help accelerate the energy transition.

Al Suwaidi said finding deals which fit its mandate had been "more challenging" than expected and that it was looking at smaller deals of $50 million or more in the areas of industrial decarbonisation, climate technology, sustainability and renewable energy "to get things going".

"We're becoming smarter about what we want from a deal and clearer about what we are looking for," he said.

Alterra said for every dollar invested by its Acceleration and Transformation funds it has so-far attracted $8 and $4, respectively, from other investors.

(Reporting by Simon Jessop and Virginia FurnessEditing by Tomasz Janowski)

((simon.jessop@thomsonreuters.com; +44 (0) 207 542 5052; Reuters Messaging: Reuters Messaging: simon.jessop.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))