Partners Group to invest US$530 million in Australian renewables platform

This article is part of a daily series of IPP articles. If you want to know more about the latest power generation projects globally visit our IPP Today section. You can receive them by email on a daily basis.

Partners Group has announced that it has agreed to invest AUD700 million (US$528.2 million) in a new large-scale renewable energy platform in Australia, to be called Grassroots Renewable Energy Platform. It will construct over 1.3 GW of new wind power, solar power and battery storage assets across Australia within the next four years. 

The investment manager is partnering with local developer CWP Renewables to realise the venture.

The platform will be seeded with the 270 MW Sapphire wind project located in New South Wales. Partners Group invested AUD250 million (now US$188.7 million) in the project, initially developed by CWP, in 2016. The wind farm is due to be completed by October 2018. Once operational, it will generate enough energy to power 110,000 Australian households and offset over 600,000 tonnes of carbon emissions a year.

The developers plan to launch a community co-investment project connected to the wind farm in late 2018, which will enable members of the neighboring community to financially benefit from the sale of the farm's output.

The second project under the Grassroots platform will be Crudine Ridge wind project, a 135 MW construction-ready wind farm located near Mudgee in New South Wales. Construction will begin this month and will be completed by September 2019.

Crudine Ridge wind farm will consist of 37 GE 3.63 MW turbines and, once operational, will provide a further 400 GWhrs to the grid annually, enough to serve 55,000 homes. Half of this energy has been sold to Powershop, an Australian electricity provider that provides 100% green energy to its retail customers owned by Meridian Energy.

The wind farm is also expected to support 75 full-time equivalent jobs during construction, stimulating further investment in local businesses and services, and offset more than eight million tonnes of carbon emissions over its lifetime.

Crudine Ridge is just one of a number of pipeline projects for Grassroots, which comprise a combination of wind, solar and battery storage assets.

Grassroots' investments will add to Partners Group's portfolio of around 2 GW solar and wind projects located in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia.