Tilt Renewables achieves financial close of US$400 million wind project in Australia
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Tilt Renewables has announced that the 336 MW Dundonnell Wind Farm located in Western Victoria, south-east Australia, has successfully reached financial close. The project is expected to cost AUD560 million (US$404.2 million).
Located 23km north-east of Mortlake, the wind farm will comprise 80 Vestas V150-4.2 MW turbines installed over 4,500 hectares and generate 1,230 GWh per year. Construction will commence early in 2019, with final completion late in 2020. When complete, the wind farm has the potential to generate enough power for around 245,000 homes.
The project will be funded by a mix of debt and equity, with the equity raising for the project likely to occur early in 2019.
Tilt Renewables has partnered with Vestas for the supply of turbines and construction of the project under a full Engineer, Procure and Construct (EPC) contract and with AusNet Services for the transmission connection component to be delivered via a Build, Own and Operate (BOO) model.
Around 87% of the production from the wind farm has been contracted to both the Victorian State Government, following the project being awarded a Support Agreement under the Victorian Renewable Energy Auction Scheme, and Snowy Hydro under an offtake agreement following their Renewable Energy Procurement Program.
Both of these initiatives were extremely competitive. The Victorian state government received applications for Support Agreements for projects with over 3,500 MW capacity. Dundonnell was one of six renewable energy projects selected, altogether representing 928 MW.
Similarly, projects with a total over 17,600 MW generation capacity were submitted to Snowy Hydro's Renewable Energy Procurement Program, greatly exceeding the sought-after 400 MW of wind and 400 MW of solar power.
