Palisade Investment Partners (Palisade) is pleased to announce that the $280 million Granville Harbour Wind Farm (the Project) has reached financial close. Construction will now commence on the 112 megawatt wind farm which is located on a 1,200 hectare cattle farm on the west coast of Tasmania at Granville Harbour.
The Project was initially developed by Westcoast Wind who undertook long term wind monitoring at the Granville Harbour site and secured necessary Local, State and Federal planning approvals for the Project. Palisade acquired 100% of Westcoast Wind in February 2018.
Palisade and Westcoast Wind negotiated a long-term PPA for the Project with Hydro Tasmania in September 2017. Palisade then completed project development including finalising the agreements with TasNetworks for the Project’s connection to the electricity grid as well as raising senior debt from Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, MUFG Bank and Westpac Banking Corporation.
Global renewable energy provider Vestas will supply, commission and service the Project, featuring 31 Vestas V126-3.6MW wind turbines. Commercial operations are scheduled to commence in Q4, 2019.
Palisade Managing Director and CEO, Roger Lloyd, said: “Granville Harbour Wind Farm demonstrates Palisade’s hands-on approach to renewables investment and further diversifies our renewable energy portfolio. Palisade’s involvement through the development phase to financial close enables us to maximise risk-adjusted returns for our investors.”
The Project will be funded through equity commitments from Palisade’s Renewable Energy Fund (PREF) and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC). Granville Harbour Wind Farm will be fourth asset in the PREF portfolio, alongside operating wind farms Hallett Wind Farm and Waterloo Wind Farm, and Ross River Solar Farm which is currently under construction. The addition of Granville Harbour Wind Farm will also see the total generation capacity of the PREF portfolio reach 50% of Palisade’s 1GW target, with the energy generated from the portfolio enough to power over 200,000 homes and abate 645,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
PREF is currently open to new commitments, with Suncorp the latest investor to commit to the fund. Suncorp will join other institutional investors including the CEFC, who in addition to a $100 million direct mandate with Palisade to invest in renewable energy, has also provided a $75 million cornerstone commitment to PREF. PREF’s total return since inception to 30 June 2018 was 15.7% per annum, with a 12 month return of 16.2%.