Clear power investor Octopus Investments Australia has launched a AU$10 billion (US$6.9 billion) platform that can finance renewables belongings and has already acquired Australia’s largest operational photo voltaic venture.
A subsidiary of the UK’s Octopus Group, Octopus Australia arrange the platform to finance the total renewables life cycle, from improvement, building and long-term operations.
The corporate stated it has concurrently closed two funds which might be co-investing right into a multi-billion-dollar Australian renewables portfolio: the Octopus Australia Sustainable Investments (OASIS) Fund, open to institutional buyers, and the Octopus Renewable Power Alternatives (OREO) Fund, open to wholesale buyers.
They’ve collectively acquired the 333MWp Darlington Level Photo voltaic Farm, which was accomplished final yr in New South Wales and is Australia’s largest operational PV venture.
Amongst OASIS’s institutional buyers are the Australian authorities’s Clear Power Finance Company (CEFC) and pension fund Hostplus.
The platform’s secured portfolio sits at AU$3 billion throughout wind, photo voltaic and storage, with a visual pipeline of a further AU$5 billion, Octopus stated, including that additional data on the subsequent acquisition can be introduced shortly.
“We noticed early on the huge alternative in Australia and the way a portfolio method to the market might align our institutional clients (in OASIS), alongside our household workplace and suggested buyers (in OREO) to create defensible and sustainable worth into the longer term,” stated Sam Reynolds, managing director at Octopus Australia.
As sister web site Power-Storage.information reported earlier this year, Hostplus will put money into a three way partnership between Octopus Australia and the CEFC to construct a 1.5GW renewable power park that can assist to exchange a coal-fired energy station within the state of Victoria.
Monetary commitments for brand spanking new renewables tasks in Australia fell by greater than 17% between 2020 and 2021, in accordance with analysis from renewables affiliation the Clear Power Council, which steered the drop was on account of coverage uncertainty and challenges related to connecting tasks to the grid.
Australia’s power minister, Chris Bowen, stated final month that the nation’s new authorities desires to “unleash non-public funding” in renewables and make the most of “the world’s greatest photo voltaic useful resource”.
