Malaysian oil giant targets 5-8GW renewables in Australia
The clean energy arm of Malaysia’s national oil and gas company Petronas intends to use acquisitions, joint ventures and organic growth to build a portfolio of solar, wind and battery storage projects totalling between 5 gigawatts and 8 gigawatts by 2030.
The expansion envisaged for the business, called Gentari, represents growth in Australia of more than 12-fold from the 400 megawatt portfolio it secured throughits acquisition of the Australian business of Germany’s Wircon early this year.
Kian Min Low, chief renewables officer of Gentari and Andrew Barson CEO of Gentari Solar Australia in Sydney on Tuesday. Flavio Bancaleone
“We have a development portfolio which we would like to ...bring to a stage where we can actually invest,” said Gentari CEO Sushil Purohit from Tokyo ahead of the official launch of Gentari’s operations in Australia on Tuesday.
“That’s one thing, but at the same time we are also looking at suitable assets which might fit into our strategy to expand.”
“We have ambitious plans in Australia, so if we want to achieve that plan of course we would look at our own development, but also we’ll be looking at additional projects through acquisitions, if they are the right ones.”
Mr Purohit said Gentari would also look to bring its green mobility business to Australia, with a focus on electric vehicle recharging infrastructure, and will examine opportunities in renewables-based hydrogen down the track, tapping the country’s plentiful and cheap solar and wind resources.
Low Kian Min, Gentari chief renewables officer, said the group expects Australia to be one of its biggest markets worldwide by 2030, behind India in terms of overseas markets. As a group, the target for 2030 is between 30 and 40 GW, mostly in
Read more on afr.com
