AC Energy expands RE portfolio to Australia

By Lenie Lectura - May 23, 2018

https://businessmirror.com.ph/ac-energy-expands-re-portfolio-to-australia/

AC Energy Holdings Inc., the power arm of Ayala Corp., is expanding its renewable-energy (RE) portfolio overseas by investing $30 million for a 50-percent interest in UPC Renewables Australia.

“AC Energy is very excited to invest into UPC Renewables Australia as it complements AC Energy’s goal to exceed 5,000 megawatts [MW] by 2025. The UPC Renewables Australia platform is focused on large-scale projects and is managed by a high-quality management team,” AC Energy President  Eric Francia said.

UPC Renewables Australia is developing the 1,000-MW Robbins Island and Jims Plain projects in North West Tasmania and the 600-MW New England Solar Farm near Uralla in New South Wales. UPC Renewables Australia also has a further development portfolio of another 3,000 MW in NSW, Tasmania and Victoria.

“The Robbins Island project itself is a very large site and together with Jim’s Plains have some of the best proven wind resources in the world, and the New England Solar project has excellent solar resource within close proximity to transmission,” Francia said.

Apart from the $30-million investment, AC Energy will also provide a $200-million facility to fund project equity.

AC Energy’s total investments will fast-track the completion of UPC Renewables Australia’s projects, UPC Renewables Australia CEO Anton Rohner said.

“AC Energy investment into UPC Renewables Australia will enable us to accelerate projects in Australia. We are making progress on the Robbins Island and Jims Plain project in North West Tasmania and we endorse the Prime Minister’s recent comment about how wind and hydro are highly complementary. We expect our projects in North West Tasmania to have capacity factors in the order of 50 percent with the turbines producing power nearly 95 percent of the time,” Rohner said.

Rohner said the Robbins Island and Jims Plain projects, together with Tasmania’s hydro assets and other new renewable-energy projects, will assist in making the interconnectors between Tasmania and Victoria, a dispatchable and significant RE generator into the national electricity market.

AC Energy earlier partnered with UPC Renewables Indonesia Ltd. for a 75-MW Sidrap wind project in Indonesia. The wind-power project, worth $150 million, started commercial operations on March 28.

Their alliance started in 2013, when they joined other partners to form North Luzon Renewable Energy Corp. for the 81-MW Caparispisan wind-farm project in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte. The plant started its commercial operations in November 2014.

UPC Renewables is a leading global energy player that develops, finances, constructs, owns and operates a portfolio of wind-power generation assets. The company and its proponents have successfully developed and operated RE projects in Italy, the United States, Canada, China and the Philippines.