Snowy Hydro to purchase 40pc of energy from Victorian wind farm
Snowy Hydro has agreed to purchase energy and green certificates generated by TagEnergy’s Golden Plains development, one of Australia’s largest onshore wind farms.
Snowy Hydro has agreed to purchase 40 per cent of the energy and green certificates generated by TagEnergy’s Golden Plains development, one of Australia’s largest onshore wind farms.
TagEnergy has begun construction on the first stage of the eventual 1300MW and the sale to Snowy Hydro will be a vindication of the developer’s decision to build the Golden Plains project – at Rokewood, west of Geelong – on a fully merchant basis.
A merchant generator trades in the wholesale market rather than underpinning its revenues by long-term power purchase contracts with customers.
TagEnergy chief executive Franck Woitiez described the deal with Snowy as an endorsement of its strategy. “It also reflects the confidence major industry players like Snowy Hydro have in our large-scale renewables project expertise,” Mr Woitiez said.
The deal will aid Snowy Hydro’s transition aspirations and provide it with the generation capacity to grow its customer base. Snowy Hydro chief executive Dennis Barnes hailed the deal as a significant step forward for the government-owned company.
“Our partnership with TagEnergy is a significant step in supporting the decarbonisation of the National Electricity Market and further enabling Australia’s transition to renewables,” Mr Barnes said.
Construction on the $2bn, 756MW stage one development, featuring 122 turbines, began in April 2023, following months of early works including road upgrades. It is expected to start producing renewable energy in the first quarter of 2025.
The federal Labor government has estimated the wind farm will generate enough electricity to meet 9 per cent of Victoria’s power demand, and it could yield 770,000 tonnes a year of CO2 emissions abatement, or more than 23 million tonnes over its 30-year life.
The Clean Energy Finance Corporation invested $175m into the project, the single largest investment by the $6.5bn government-owned organisation in a wind project, and is also expected to yield the biggest single contribution to emissions reductions in its portfolio.
The CEFC funding for Golden Plains will sit alongside $1.8bn of private sector capital, including equity from TagEnergy as well as debt from Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, Bank of China, Mizuho, Germany’s state-owned KfW and Danish credit export agency EKF. In July, TagEnergy said the Agnelli family, which founded Fiat and now owns a majority stake in Ferrari, has acquired a stake in the Australian renewable energy developer.
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