Solar work to start

THE joint venturers of the $ 225 million Ross River Solar Farm in Townsville have flagged the start to construction after achieving financial close for the project.

Palisade Investment Partners and ESCO Pacific are developing the 148MW solar farm on a 202ha former mango plantation near Ross Dam.

The project will be funded through equity commitments from Palisade’s renewable energy fund and three of Palisade’s institutional clients, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and superannuation funds VicSuper and HESTA.

The Palisade Renewable Energy Fund has a portfolio comprising the Ross River project and two wind farms and will continue to invest in renewable projects from latestage development through to operational assets.

ESCO obtained development approval for the solar farm from Townsville City Council last year.

It has since received approval for a further 470MW of solar farms in Queensland, forming part of a development pipeline of in excess of 1500MW.

Palisade and ESCO signed a long- term power purchase agreement for Ross River with EnergyAustralia in December.

The partners then completed project development and Palisade arranged the senior debt for the project from Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, The Bank of Tokyo- Mitsubishi UFJ and Westpac Banking Corporation.

Construction is expected to take 12 months and will be undertaken by Downer Utilities Australia with oversight from CAT Projects as owner’s engineer.

ESCO Pacific managing director Steve Rademaker said achieving financial close on the Ross River Solar Farm demonstrated ESCO Pacific’s ability to deliver projects to a bankable standard.

“We have a significant pipeline of projects and a proven platform to deliver projects to market over the coming years,” Mr Rademaker said.

The CEFC will invest about $ 20 million in the Ross River Solar Farm as part of a $ 100 million allocation to Palisade’s renewable energy strategy.

Also, the CEFC has provided a $ 75 million cornerstone commitment to the Palisade Renewable Energy Fund.

Meanwhile, Origin Energy has sold its under- development Darling Downs solar farm to gas pipelines operator APA Group for about $ 200 million but will buy all the electricity generated by the project until 2030.

The energy producer and retailer said it had divested its stake in the 110MW for which it had secured a $ 20 million grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency late last year.

The project is next to its gas- fired Darling Downs Power Station with construction to be completed in late 2018.