Partners Group has invested in Bango Wind Farm, a 244-megawatt construction-ready project in the state of New South Wales, Australia, on behalf of its clients.
The project has a total value of AUD 500 million ($338 million).
Partners Group will also lead the operational roll-out of Bango, which will comprise 46 GE Cypress 5.3-megawatt turbines, with a total nameplate capacity of 244 megawatts. Bango will be the first wind farm globally to use this type of turbine, which is the largest onshore wind turbine currently in production.
Bango will be Partners Group’s fifth renewables project in Australia, bringing the firm’s total renewables commitment in the country to almost AUD 1.2 billion ($813 million) to-date, according to Andrew Kwok, managing director and head of private infrastructure Asia, Partners Group.
Construction of Bango will commence in August, with the farm expected to be operational by mid-year 2021. Once completed, Bango is projected to generate enough clean energy to power more than 100,000 households and would save more than 600,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year.
It has already secured a 15-year contract with Snowy Hydro, an investment-grade off-taker, for 100 megawatts of its capacity. Bango is the third project under Grassroots Renewable Energy, a large-scale renewable energy platform in Australia established in May 2018 by Partners Group and CWP Renewables. Partners Group has invested a total of AUD 700 million ($474 million) of equity investment into Grassroots, on behalf of its clients.
Prior to Bango, Partners Group invested in the 270-megawatt Sapphire Wind Farm and the 135-megawatt Crudine Ridge Wind Farm in 2016 and 2018, respectively, both of which are also located in New South Wales. Sapphire Wind Farm became operational in December 2018 and was recently announced as a supplier of renewable energy to the Sydney Opera House via its power purchase agreement with energy provider Flow Power.
“Despite ongoing market challenges related to grid congestion and uncertainty in future green energy policy, there remains a compelling market opportunity for experienced developers and investors in renewable energy in Australia, particularly in New South Wales,” said Benjamin Haan, operating partner of Partners Group, and chair of Grassroots Renewable Energy.
“With a potential project pipeline of 1.3 gigawatts of wind and solar generation capacity, we are pleased to continue to work with the CWP team to develop Grassroots into a renewables platform of significant scale, offering attractive offtake solutions across a diversified portfolio, and supporting the generation of clean energy in Australia.”