Investment in Bango follows the 270MW Sapphire Wind Farm in 2016 and the 135MW Crudine Ridge Wind Farm in 2018, and both the facilities are located in Australia
Image: Bango marks the first wind farm across the world to use Cypress turbine. Photo: Courtesy of Steppinstars from Pixabay.
Partners Group, a Swiss private equity investment manager, has invested in the 244MW Bango Wind Farm (Bango) in the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia.
The investment has been made by Partners Group on behalf of its clients. The Bango wind facility is designed to feature 46 GE Cypress 5.3MW turbines, and Partners Group would lead the operational roll-out of the wind farm.
In addition, the project is expected to be the first wind farm across the world to use Cypress turbine, which marks the largest onshore wind turbine currently in production.
Total project value of Bango is AUD 500m (£112m)
The construction of the Australian wind facility, with a total project value of £112m, is expected to start in August 2019 and is planned to be operational by mid-year 2021.
In addition, it is already supported by a 15-year contract with Snowy Hydro, an investment grade off-taker, for 100MW of its capacity.
Once completed, the project is anticipated to generate adequate clean energy to power more than 100,000 households and save over 600,000 tonnes of carbon emissions annually.
Partners Group Asia managing director and private infrastructure head Andrew Kwok said: “We are excited to deploy our significant industry expertise and value creation resources on behalf of our clients to build Bango Wind Farm. Bango will be Partners Group’s fifth renewables project in Australia, bringing our total renewables commitment in the country to almost AUD 1.2 billion to-date.”
Bango wind farm marks 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.
On behalf of its clients, Partners Group has committed a total of AUD 700m (£157m) of equity investment into Grassroots.
Partners Group said that investment in Bango follows the 270MW Sapphire Wind Farm in 2016 and the 135MW Crudine Ridge Wind Farm in 2018, and both the facilities are located in Australia.
Partners Group operating partner and Grassroots Renewable Energy Chair Benjamin Haan said: “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.
“With a potential project pipeline of 1.3GW 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.”