Debt pricing for Emerald Solar Farm emerges

RES Australia announced Emerald Solar Park has reached financial close for both equity and debt on October 24, 2017; and that the construction of the facility will commence immediately, making a significant contribution to the Queensland Government’s target of 50% renewable energy by 2030.

Lighthouse Infrastructure has acquired 100% of the project, through its Lighthouse Solar Fund. The company was advised by RBC Capital Markets and King & Wood Mallesons.

The project will create 150-200 direct jobs and 320 indirect positions in Queensland’s Central Highlands region during the construction phase, with up 275,000 solar panels being installed as part of the project located west of the town of Emerald.

It is expected that construction of the project will take less than 12 months to complete and when fully constructed, the solar park will provide up to 68 MWac of generation capacity into the Queensland grid and will produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of up to 35,000 households.

RES Australia will undertake both construction and asset management services on behalf of Lighthouse and has appointed RCR O’Donnell Griffin to construct the project; while Telstra signed innovative long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) to support the project.

RES Australia Chief Operating Officer, Matt Rebbeck, commented:

“Emerald Solar Park is the result of phenomenal teamwork within RES globally and our broader team of partners on the project. I’d like to extend particular thanks to the team at Ergon Energy, to the Queensland Government and, of course, to Telstra for showing great foresight, insight and market leadership in issuing Australia’s first large-scale offsite renewables corporate PPA.”

“We are delighted to announce the project will now proceed into construction immediately and are looking forward to a long term partnership with the experienced team at Lighthouse Infrastructure.”

RES Australia CEO, Marco Perona, said:

 “This project is not only another big step forward for RES’ activities in Australia, but it is also ours, and our business partners’, contribution to the integration of more renewable energy into the energy mix through innovative schemes.”