Korean giant sparks up partner search for NSW solar, battery assets
Hanwha Energy Australia has tapped Azure Capital to find a like-minded investment partner for its shovel-ready solar and battery storage assets in New South Wales.
Hanwha’s solar farms would be located close to Wagga Wagga.
Street Talk understand the Korean player has begun an investor search after nearly five years of work on its Australian assets. It wants to have a partner locked in by year-end, just in time for grid connections for the solar farms, sources said.
The portfolio includes three assets. The Gregadoo solar farm, which has a 65 megawatts capacity (on an alternating current basis), is located 8 kilometres from Wagga Wagga. About 120 kilometres from Gregadoo, Hanwha is ready to build a bigger 120 megawatts solar farm. It has development approval for a co-located 30 megawatts battery energy storage system. Lastly, there’s an option to acquire an interest in a 200 megawatts battery at Boiling Down.
Potential partners have been told Hanwha expects Gregadoo to receive an offer to connect in the September quarter, followed by Jindera in the December quarter. Notice to proceed for both would be squared off by March. In short, it’s done the grunt work and is ready to build the farms with a partner.
A highlight of the sell-side pitch is Hanwha’s electricity retaining arm Nectr, which will sign fixed-price offtakes to buy both solar farms’ entire output for the next 10 years. Nectr already has 38,000 residential and commercial customers and is aiming to provide “energy as a platform service” by 2025. These power purchase agreements are guaranteed by Hanwha’s Korean parent, making them “investment grade.”
Azure dealmakers also pointed out that the assets are ideally located: no grid risks, close to regional reference
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