GBN Member Transaction Database

Green Investment Group, the specialist green energy project developer and investor, and Covanta, the world’s leading energy-from-waste (EfW) owner and operator, announced financial close on the acquisition of a 50 per cent stake in the Earls Gate Energy Centre (EGEC). EGEC is a 21.5 MWe combined heat and power energy-from-waste facility located in Grangemouth, Scotland. EGEC will prevent 216,000 tonnes of mixed household, commercial and industrial waste from entering landfill per annum. Instead, the waste will be converted into 79GWh of green electricity and 81GWh of heat in the form of steam each year. Working closely with co-investor and developer Brockwell Energy who own the remaining 50 per cent stake, the facility will become a direct source of reliable, green, low-cost energy for local businesses located at Earls Road. Chemical manufacturer and site service provider, CalaChem, has entered into a long-term Energy Supply Agreement (ESA) for the offtake of electricity and steam produced by EGEC. The total project value is approximately £210 million.

The Australian Renewables Income Fund (ARIF), a renewable energy fund managed by Infrastructure Capital Group, will focus on acquiring and developing large-scale wind and solar developments, as well as energy-from-waste projects, large-scale battery storage and pumped hydro.  The CEFC has made a cornerstone equity commitment of up to $100 million to ARIF. The CEFC’s commitment is directed towards further renewable energy asset purchases, including yet-to-be developed large-scale assets, as well as operating projects. Based on previous investment experience, the CEFC expects its investment to contribute to the development of some 260MW in renewable generation assets, with the potential to deliver carbon abatement of about 630,000 tonnes a year.

There are currently limited fund style opportunities for institutional investors seeking equity exposure to renewable energy assets. The CEFC is investing in ARIF to expand the availability of tailored renewable energy investment options for investors, and to respond to the expectations of fund members. It is also helping increase the amount of finance available for large-scale renewable energy projects, especially at the early stage of development.

ARIF has three operating seed assets: – the 55MW Mumbida Wind Farm south-east of Geraldton in Western Australia; the 132MW Hallet 4 Wind Farm in Brown Hill South Australia and the 107MW Bald Hills Wind Farm, in Gippsland Victoria. All three assets have current contracted power purchase agreements with major entities.

The CEFC and specialist infrastructure debt investment manager Westbourne Capital have committed AU$160 million in finance to construct Stage II of Nexif Energy’s Lincoln Gap Wind Farm in South Australia. The additional CEFC commitment, of AU$50 million, takes its overall senior debt commitment in the project to AU$200 million, representing its largest investment in a single wind farm development to date. When complete, the Lincoln Gap Wind Farm near Port Augusta will have a total generating capacity of more than 212 MW, producing enough energy to power 155,000 homes. It will offset some 680,000 tonnes of carbon emissions annually. CEFC Wind sector lead Andrew Gardner said: “This debt finance package sees Westbourne Capital participating as a mezzanine debt lender alongside our senior debt commitment. “The ability to fold mezzanine debt into finance for new build wind farms in this manner creates new investment opportunities for non-bank lenders to further support the growth of the renewable energy sector.”

Ecosave Inc. is an energy efficiency services company providing turnkey design, engineering, construction, management, and maintenance services for mid-sized commercial customers through an energy services agreement (ESA) model. NYGB is committing $2.0 million alongside capital from NYCEEC to finance an ESA between Ecosave and the Hebrew Home at Riverdale, a senior care facility in the Bronx. Using NYGB capital, energy efficiency improvements including LED lighting retrofits and HVAC upgrades will be installed at no upfront cost to the customer, and a portion of the resulting energy savings will be used to repay the lenders over time.

This transaction establishes greater performance history for energy efficiency projects with medium-sized, unrated, commercial and industrial (“C&I”) customers, an asset class that historically has reduced access to commercial capital. The installation is expected to reduce at least 560 metric tons of GHG emissions annually or 8,460 metric tons of GHG emissions over the 15-year project life. The transaction will help to demonstrate viability of the ESA model, drawing new investors and financial institutions into the marketplace. This fits within NYGB’s strategy to increase liquidity and drive additional volume in the NYS energy efficiency sector, ultimately lowering the cost of capital for energy efficiency retrofits.

CCR is developing a portfolio of Community distributed generation (DG) solar projects in New York State (NYS). Under the New York State Public Service Commission Standardized Interconnection Requirements and Application Process, developers seeking interconnections for their projects are required to make a deposit of 25% of the interconnection upgrade estimates followed by full payment 120 business days later. In August 2017, NYGB and CCR closed a Bridge Loan for up to $11.5 million to finance those interconnection deposit payments to NYS utilities, which will be used for as many as 72 Community DG solar projects. In December 2017, the Bridge Loan was increased by $13.5 million and extended until December 2019 to finance a portion of the balance of the estimated interconnection upgrade payments. In December 2018, the Bridge Loan was further increased by $20.0 million to a total $45.0 million facility, and extended until April 2021, to finance interconnection deposit payments and support CCR’s development of its NYS solar assets.

CEFC committed up to AU$90 million towards Australia’s first large-scale energy from waste (EfW) project – a state-of-the-art plant at Kwinana in Western Australia capable of producing 36MW of electricity, enough to power up to 50,000 homes. The Kwinana plant will use technology that already has a strong track record in Europe and meets strict environmental requirements. The thermally-treated waste heats water into steam to produce electricity, with metals recovered for recycling and other by-product materials suitable for reuse in the construction industry. The Kwinana plant is being developed by Phoenix Energy and Macquarie Capital and global fund manager DIF holds a majority equity stake. It is expected to employ around 800 workers during its three-year construction phase, and some 60 operations staff on an ongoing basis. It has secured long-term supply contracts for the majority of its waste requirements from the Rivers Regional Council and the City of Kwinana. The CEFC finance is part of a AU$400 million debt syndicate that also includes SMBC, Investec, Siemens, IFM Investors and Metrics Credit Partners, some of which have prior experience in banking EfW projects globally. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is contributing a further AU$23 million in grant funding.

Australia’s Visy Industries will increase its capacity to recycle waste materials by 10 per cent with a pipeline of projects to improve the overall energy efficiency and renewable energy use of its large-scale Australian manufacturing operations.

A global leader in the packaging, paper and resource recovery industries, Visy provides high quality, innovative and sustainable packaging products and solutions. As a major Australian manufacturer, Visy is leading the way in investing in energy efficient equipment and technologies to help power its 24-hour operations.

Visy recycles 1.2 million tonnes of paper and cardboard each year. Drawing on AU$30 million in debt finance from the CEFC, Visy expects to increase this capacity by 10 per cent with upgrades to existing recycling infrastructure as well as investments in new equipment to support greater resource recovery.

BlueRock is developing and operating a portfolio of Community DG projects in NY, with a current pipeline of 20.0 MWdc. In 2017, BlueRock partnered with Renovus Solar, Inc. to develop and build the Renovus Rock, LLC project, a 646.0 kWdc project located in Millport, NY that has been operating since April 2017. BlueRock is now the sole owner of the project. NYGB has provided the Term Loan of $775,000, secured by the Renovus Rock, LLC project to support the development BlueRock’s Community DG portfolio in NYS.

This transaction is estimated to support the deployment of Community DG projects in the State which will provide commercial and residential project subscribers access to reliable, clean, low-cost energy. As there is increasingly strong demand for Community DG throughout NYS, growth of this asset class through the deployment of projects offers and requires participation by capital providers. Products like the Term Loan are expected to ultimately be offered by private capital providers in future to finance Community DG portfolios-at scale.

South Australian households can draw on cost-competitive CEFC finance to install home solar and battery storage under the South Australian government’s Home Battery Scheme. The CEFC has committed up to AU$100 million to finance loans for the scheme, with the finance available through RateSetter’s new South Australian ‘green lending’ platform Under the Scheme, 40,000 South Australian households have access to up to AU$6000 in government subsidies to put toward the cost of the battery component of solar and battery installations. The CEFC will finance loans where the upfront costs of the home battery system installations are not met by the subsidies. RateSetter and the CEFC have been working together since May 2017, when the CEFC made a AU$20 million commitment to kick-start RateSetter’s Green Loan Marketplace for borrowers looking to buy or install energy efficient and solar products.

The 112MW Granville Harbour Wind Farm will boost Tasmania’s wind energy capacity by about a third.

On a 1,200 hectare cattle farm on Tasmania’s west coast, the Granville Harbour Wind Farm is owned by Palisade Investment Partners on behalf of its clients and has a long-term power purchase agreement with Hydro Tasmania.

It is expected to create 200 jobs during construction. Once operational, the AU$280 million wind farm’s 31 turbines are expected to generate enough electricity to power 40,000 homes.

The Granville Harbour development is part of an increasing focus on wind energy in Tasmania, which will see considerable investment in regional areas of the state over the coming years.

Tasmania is targeting 100 per cent renewable energy by 2022 and is looking towards becoming a net exporter of electricity by supplying renewable energy to the National Electricity Market.

Tasmania currently has about 90 per cent of its electricity generated from renewables, with the bulk coming from its hydro-electric resources.

The CEFC’s AU$59 million finance towards the project is in two parts – a direct equity commitment of AU$25 million and a further AU$34 million in equity commitment via the Palisade Renewable Energy Fund (PREF).

intelliHUB is a new business aiming to accelerate the use of smart meters, further extending the benefits of distributed clean energy to Australian households and businesses.

The new intelliHUB joint venture will be a leading Australian provider of smart meter solutions, servicing Australian energy retailers and consumers. The Acumen business included the existing management and servicing of an already deployed 170,000 meters and the combined business has future, long-term contracts with Origin Energy and other retailers, that will see it rollout and manage more than 1 million smart meters across Australia and New Zealand.

There are some 9 million metering points in the National Electricity Market.

By accelerating their conversion to smarter technologies, customers will benefit from more meaningful information relating to their energy consumption.

These customers will be better informed when considering investment in solar and storage solutions by matching system specifications to actual consumption patterns.

Through improved data provision, electricity network operators will also be able to harness greater insights to enable a smoother operation of the energy grid, facilitating improved integration of renewables and energy storage.

The CEFC has committed $35 million in debt finance for the $267 million Acumen acquisition and intelliHUB’s future growth.

The first institutional build-to-rent investment platform in Australia – Mirvac’s Australian Build-to-Rent Club (ABTRC) – will bring the benefits of clean energy and energy efficiency to families and tenants in the home rental market.

The CEFC is a cornerstone investor in the ABTRC, with Mirvac identifying the Indigo building in its Pavilions project in Sydney’s Olympic Park as the seed asset. The CEFC investment will further enhance design across the 258 one, two and three-bedroom apartments, using clean energy and energy efficiency technologies.

The build-to-rent project, scheduled for completion by mid-2021, will include on-site solar PV, energy display and monitoring systems, high-efficiency LED lighting, energy efficient appliances, glazing upgrades, car-park exhaust fans and passive solar design.

Together, the initiatives are expected to cut energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by up to 40 per cent compared with what would be achieved under the minimum standards of the National Construction Code.

The ABTRC is targeting a portfolio of five to six projects, mainly in Sydney and Melbourne.

Build-to-rent or multi-family residential developments are well established in the US and Europe, where institutional investors own entire residential developments, and offer the surety of long-term leases to individual residents.

Australia’s emerging build-to-rent market provides the opportunity for developers and owners to develop properties with a whole of lifecycle approach. This can ensure clean energy and energy efficiency initiatives are incorporated from the planning stage, driving energy savings for owners and tenants.

The CEFC has made a AU$50 million cornerstone equity investment as part of a first close in the ABTRC, to demonstrate how energy efficient buildings with long-term environmental benefits can be achieved across what is expected to be a major investment platform in Australian housing.

Leading alternative asset manager Morrison & Co will spearhead clean energy standards across Australian social and economic infrastructure assets, as part of its specialist AU$1 billion ‘green’ infrastructure fund.

Morrison & Co focuses on decarbonisation as a key investment strategy. It has been investing in renewable energy for more than 20 years and, through its new fund, will apply its decarbonisation and energy efficiency lens to a broader set of infrastructure assets to generate better long-term investment outcomes.

The Morrison & Co Growth Infrastructure Fund will acquire and develop a diverse range of essential assets, from hospitals to data centres, retirement and aged care accommodation to student housing and renewable energy.

Over time, the fund will look to progressively introduce internationally-recognised science-based targets to build a zero emissions portfolio. It will also draw on relevant Australian-based sustainability standards to set best-practice sustainability goals, including those of the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia, the National Australian Built Environment Rating System and the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme.

The implementation of ambitious energy and emissions goals across the fund’s portfolio will include the adoption of a wide range of benchmarking tools.

Methodologies such as Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) ratings for economic infrastructure and renewable energy assets, NABERS, NaThERS, GRESB and Green Star ratings for built environment assets will be used to set best-practice sustainability goals.

The CEFC is investing AU$150 million in the Morrison & Co Growth Infrastructure Fund, which will acquire and manage a range of assets where there is potential for significant improvements in their energy efficiency profile.

The Numurkah Solar Farm will demonstrate how solar energy can deliver a cost-effective solution for energy-intensive manufacturers.

The 100MW (AC) (128MWp) solar farm in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley region is expected to generate about 255,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity into the national power grid each year. That’s enough solar to power about 42,000 homes.

The AU$198 million solar farm, being developed by Neoen, will be constructed over 500 hectares and include about 350,000 solar panels. It is expected to be operating by the middle of 2019.

Neoen has secured major power supply contracts that will serve both the Laverton steelworks in Melbourne’s west and the Melbourne tram network.

Neoen has contracted 60 per cent of the farm’s projected bundled output to renewable energy retailer SIMEC ZEN Energy, a majority owned subsidiary of the GFG Alliance which operates the Laverton steelworks. SIMEC ZEN Energy will use the energy to support firm retail supply contracts to commercial and industrial customers in Victoria, including the Laverton steelworks.

The Victorian Government has contracted a further 30 per cent of Numurkah’s large-scale generation certificates to support its goal of covering the electricity load of Melbourne’s tram network with solar power.

The CEFC has committed AU$60 million in debt finance to the project. The debt finance syndicate for the Numurkah project also includes clients managed by Vantage Infrastructure, an independent specialist investment manager, as well as German Landesbank NORD/LB.

Melbourne’s new South Eastern Organics Processing Facility is set to convert around 12,000 truckloads of household garden and food waste, drawn from council kerbside green waste collections, into 50,000 tonnes of high-grade compost each year.

The new mechanical and biological treatment plant will treat organic waste produced by eight Melbourne councils, substantially reducing landfill and emissions. The compost will be used in local parks and gardens

The A$65 million plant is being built by leading international waste management company Sacyr Group. The plant is expected to abate more than 65,000 tonnes of CO?-e emissions annually – cutting 85 per cent of the emissions the waste would have generated in landfill – the same as removing about 13,900 cars from the road each year.

Sacyr expects the fully-enclosed, in-vessel aerobic composting and maturation plant to be operational in mid-2019. It will operate for 15 years, with a potential five-year extension.

The project demonstrates how CEFC finance can address methane emissions, which have a global warming potential 25 times stronger than that of carbon dioxide.

The eight participating councils Bayside, Cardinia, Casey, Frankston, Glen Eira, Greater Dandenong, Kingston and Monash, are part of the Victorian Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Group (MWRRG).

The councils are charged gate fees to use the facility, with the majority of the compost sold back to the councils for use in community parks and gardens.

Sacyr Group, which has a proven international track record of constructing composting and energy from waste facilities, uses a fully-enclosed in-vessel composting process to turn organic waste from household green-waste bins into a high-grade compost.

The plant storage reservoirs are completely closed and use efficient and reliable deodorisation systems. This technology complies with the most stringent standards within the sector.

The CEFC is committing up to A$38 million in debt finance to the project in an industry-first finance model that provides councils with access to a project financing structure that has rarely been leveraged across local government.

With the level of investment in waste infrastructure required over the next few years, the CEFC is looking to establish this financing model to accelerate further investment in waste management facilities.

Green Investment Group announced financial close on €270m of total funding for a 235 MW onshore wind farm in central Sweden. The project was developed by GIG and SCA Energy AB (SCA) and will comprise 56 Siemens Gamesa 4.2 MW turbines.

Partnering with SCA, GIG has commercialised, structured and financed the project through development to financial close. This includes the origination and structuring of what is believed to be one of the longest corporate wind energy PPA’s globally, with a 29-year fixed-volume agreement with Norsk Hydro – one of the largest aluminum companies in the world. Scandinavia is a priority market for GIG and the transaction extends the growing relationship with Norsk Hydro following the GIG backed 650 MW Markbygden Ett onshore wind farm last year.

GIG will own 100 per cent of the equity in the project. Macquarie Capital (Europe) Limited acted as financial adviser to the sponsor on the project, raising c.€160m of senior debt from Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (Crédit Agricole CIB) and KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH (KfW). Denmark’s Export Credit Agency (EKF) is providing export credit cover. Siemens Gamesa will provide operations and maintenance services to the project through a 25-year agreement. NEAS Energy (part of Centrica plc) will provide balancing and hedging services for the project.

BQ is a Wappingers Falls, New York-based renewable energy project developer specializing in landfill and brownfield site redevelopment. NYGB’s $4.9 million construction loan enables BQ to complete the 4.1 MW ground-mounted solar farm (the “Project”) to be constructed on a remediated former ExxonMobil refinery site in Olean, NY. CIR Electric Construction Corporation (“CIR”) will construct the Project under a standardized balance of plant (“BOP”) contract utilizing top-tier panels, inverters, and racking systems.

The Project will generate revenue by selling clean power (or, more specifically, selling the value of clean power evidenced by net metering credits) to the City. The Project is the fourth of several similar developments in BQ’s pipeline that NYGB anticipates financing as part of a larger portfolio. BQ expects the majority of projects in the portfolio to be located on landfill and brownfield sites in Western NY, Central NY, Hudson Valley, and Long Island with the power generated providing clean power to municipalities, universities, schools, and hospitals (“MUSH”), and utilities.

NYGB’s participation in the Project – and in similar future developments included in the proposed portfolio arrangement – will help expand financing opportunities for smaller (less than 10 MW) solar systems by fostering standardization in underwriting (which is the process a lender uses to assess the creditworthiness or risk of a potential borrower) including a streamlined, uniform approach to integrating contractors, structuring contracts, and utilizing standardized equipment.

GIG has successfully developed, commercialized and reached financial close of Canadian Breaks, a 200 MW onshore wind farm in Texas. The asset, featuring an installation of Siemens Gamesa wind turbines, is located in Texas in Oldham and Deaf Smith Counties and connects into the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) electric grid.

Canadian Breaks was fully developed by Macquarie Capital, who provided 100% of the sponsor equity. Macquarie Capital also acted as financial advisor and led the structuring of an energy hedge, tax equity and debt financing. Rabobank, National Australia Bank and Siemens Financial Services provided debt financing.

Clean energy business accelerator EnergyLab has expanded to Brisbane. For its new Brisbane base, EnergyLab selected four start-ups after a rigorous assessment process. Each start-up will receive 6-24 months support, including rent-free office space, AU$50,000 in seed capital, and mentoring and networking opportunities to help them build a business platform for their ongoing development.

The new EnergyLab base is co-located with the CEFC. The Queensland government is providing an additional AU$400,000 in operational funding, as part of its Advance Queensland Biofutures 10-Year Roadmap and Action Plan.

The seed capital that EnergyLab provides to start-ups is financed through the Clean Energy Seed Fund, which was established in 2017 by specialist fund manager Artesian. The CEFC, through the Clean Energy Innovation Fund, is a AU$10 million cornerstone investor in the AU$26 million Clean Energy Seed Fund.

Lightsource BP, a global leader in the development, financing and operation of solar energy projects, is pleased to announce the completion of a renewables project in Maharashtra, India. The project was financed in partnership with UK Climate Investments (UKCI), a joint venture between the Green Investment Group and the UK Government’s Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). The commissioning of the 60 MWp solar farm in Wagdari, Maharashtra marks a significant milestone for Lightsource BP as its first utility solar asset commissioned in India.

The NAB Low Carbon Shared Portfolio is the first of its kind in Australia, giving Australian organisations the ability to directly invest in large-scale renewable energy projects.

The innovative NAB Low Carbon Shared Portfolio creates an opportunity for institutional investors such as superannuation funds to participate in the renewable energy sector even though they may not be able to enter into individual project financing transactions.

The AU$200 million Low Carbon Shared Portfolio is backed by a portfolio of eight NAB loans that fund seven existing wind and large-scale solar projects in Australia. The CEFC made a AU$90 million cornerstone commitment to the new offering.

Australia’s largest ASX-listed solar infrastructure business, New Energy Solar, is using finance from the CEFC to help to deliver a portfolio of Australian solar power plants to its investors. The Manildra Solar Power Plant, in central-western NSW, is New Energy Solar’s foundation Australian asset.

New Energy Solar is investing in Australian projects with high-quality solar resources and long-term offtake agreements, to generate stable long-term returns for its security holders.

The company already has seven operational solar power plants and a further 14 in construction or committed in the United States.

The 46.7MW (AC)/55.9MW (DC) Manildra plant, developed by First Solar, has a long-term offtake agreement with Energy Australia. It is delivering electricity into the National Electricity Market.

The Manildra plant is expected to generate more than 118,000 megawatt hours of electricity annually. This is equivalent to displacing more than 91,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum, or powering 14,000 homes.

The CEFC is providing a AU$50 million bridging loan facility to assist New Energy Solar to build its presence in the Australian market. The investment reflects the CEFC mission to catalyse additional private sector investment in Australian clean energy. The CEFC finance will also provide further liquidity to the Australian solar development cycle, by providing opportunities for investors to purchase projects from developers.

Once repaid by New Energy Solar, the CEFC finance will be further invested in Australian clean energy opportunities.

Renew, a leading integrated power company in the United States, is developing a national portfolio of Community DG solar projects with 19.0% of the portfolio located in NYS. Renew engaged an investment bank (the “Lead Arranger”) to structure, arrange, and syndicate a term loan to finance the projects when they are placed in service, and NYGB is committing $18.0 million as part of that term loan.

This transaction is among the first large-scale financings for a portfolio of Community DG solar assets and is estimated to support the deployment of up to 15.0 MW of Community DG solar assets in NYS. This deployment is expected to: (i) provide residential subscribers access to reliable, clean, low-cost energy; and (ii) reduce up to 9,280 metric tons of greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions annually or up to 232,000 metric tons of GHG emissions over a 25-year project life. The transaction will help to demonstrate viability of the Community DG model, drawing new investors and financial institutions into the marketplace and ultimately lowering the cost of capital. This, in turn, is expected to benefit consumers in the form of broader access to lower-cost clean energy generation.

Fortum and Elite Alfred Berg (EAB) have entered into a partnership with UK Climate Investments (UKCI) that will introduce a new asset class into the Indian renewables market. UKCI is a joint venture between the Green Investment Group and the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which aims to help the world’s developing economies adapt to climate change and promote cleaner, greener growth.

UKCI will acquire a 40 per cent ownership interest in a 185 MW portfolio of operating solar assets in India. Fortum will retain a 46 per cent interest in the solar farms, with EAB entering an agreement to acquire the remaining 14 per cent. The acquired portfolio comprises four solar farms located in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka. The transaction represents a significant development in one of the world’s fastest growing solar markets, with the portfolio used to create India’s first unlisted renewables ‘yieldco’ vehicle for international investors.

CEFC participated in a AU$113 million senior debt facility alongside Westpac and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation for the 135 MW Crudine Ridge Wind Farm. The wind farm will provide enough electricity to power around 55,000 homes each year, abating over eight million tonnes of carbon emissions over its lifetime. It is expected to support 75 full time equivalent jobs during construction, stimulating further investment in local businesses and services.