Carlyle-backed Amp puts renewables portfolio on the block via BofA
Another day, another battery deal. Street Talk can reveal Amp Energy, a Canadian renewable energy infrastructure player backed by global investment firm The Carlyle Group, is in the market searching for a buyer for its portfolio of local renewable generation and storage assets.
A sale flyer, distributed by the sell-side adviser Bank of America and obtained by Street Talk, talked up the company’s “strategically located portfolio” of operating solar farms and ready-to-build battery energy storage systems, backed by renewable sector growth as Australia’s energy system decarbonises.
Amp’s up-for-sale portfolio includes a trio of assets spread across South Australia and New South Wales: the 119MW Hillston Solar Farm, the 39MW Molong Solar Farm and the 552MW Bungama Energy Complex, comprising a co-located 250MW/500MWh battery, of which 150MW is ready to build, and a 302MW solar farm development project.
Amp’s 119MW Hillston Solar Farm in New South Wales has been operational since August 2021. Bloomberg
The vast majority (84 per cent) of Amp’s $17.8 million revenue in FY22 came from Hillston which is up and running; the remaining 16 per cent from Molong. Bungama’s three assets are in ready-to-build or development-approved stages.
Amp forecasts full 710MW portfolio completion by December 2025 with the Bungama BESS (battery energy storage systems) stage 1 coming online in 2024 and BESS stage 2 and solar in October 2025. BofA pitched BESS stage 1 as a key asset given “South Australia’s large intra-day price spreads, highest penetration of intermittent wind / solar resource and reliance on gas peaking generation”.
Toronto-headquartered Amp Energy was founded in 2009 by chief executive Dave Rogers and chief investment officer Paul
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