CleanPeak Energy gets busy in the ACT; adds 3 solar farms
Former Citi managing director Philip Graham’s CleanPeak Energy is making a bet on the Canberra elite. The rooftop solar outfit has inked an agreement to acquire Sentient Impact Group’s portfolio of 14.5-megawatt solar farms in Western Australia and the nation’s capital.
Philip Graham, chief executive CleanPeak Energy
The trio of solar assets takes the CleanPeak Energy Renewable Infrastructure Trust’s investment in ACT solar farms to more than $70 million and adds 26 gigawatt-hours of generation. Now under its control are the Williamsdale Solar Farm and the Mount Majura Solar Farm, both located in the ACT and the Karratha Solar Farm in WA’s Gap Ridge.
CleanPeak was founded in 2017 by Graham, who led natural resources, energy and power for Citi’s investment banking team for over a decade, and former Origin Energy executive Jonathan Hare. The trust is owned by infrastructure bigwig Igneo Infrastructure Partners and CleanPeak Energy.
Graham told Street Talk that the acquisition was funded via a combination of equity put up by Igneo and CleanPeak and debt financing by Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation. Maddocks provided legal while PKF put up tax and accounting advisory services.
“Each of the assets provides strong stable cashflows from long-term Government offtake contracts as well as high reliability given their excellent location in the network,” Graham said.
He added the pair of ACT solar farms are key to CleanPeak’s strategy in the territory, sitting alongside its Mugga Lane Solar Farm asset, acquired in January. CleanPeak hopes to add batteries to Williamsdale and Mugga Lane, which both sit atop long-term crown leases, down the line. All three assets are currently contracted to feed power into the electricity network
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