John Laing announces acquisition and financial close of 175 MW solar PV project in Australia

John Laing and ESCO Pacific has announced the acquisition and financial close of the 174.9 MWp Finley solar farm. The company acquired a 100% interest in the project from ESCO Pacific contemporaneously with the project achieving financial close with debt funding provided by Westpac and ANZ. 

The project involves the development of a 174.9 MW solar photovoltaic farm located at Finley, 6 km west of Finley in New South Wales, south-east Australia. The ground-mounted solar farm will consist of 500,000 solar panels installed on a 300 Ha site. Its output will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 300,000 tonnes of CO₂ each year. This is comparable to taking 90,000 cars off the road and is enough to power 60,000 homes.

ESCO Pacific developed the project and will remain involved in the project long term through the provision of construction management and asset management services. 

The Finley Solar Farm will benefit from a long-term renewable energy power purchase agreement (PPA) with BlueScope Steel Limited for the supply of renewable energy and green certificates for a 7 year term. 

The project will be built under an EPC contract by a JV formed by Canadian Solar and Signal Energy. Canadian Solar will also be the solar panel supplier for the project. 

The project is expected to reach staged commercial operation commencing from Q3 2019 with final commercial operation expected in October 2019.