Greek industrial conglomerate Mytilineos has reached financial close on 237MWp worth of Australian solar PV projects, with financing from backers ANZ and Westpac.
The portfolio is spread across three projects: the Moura (110MWp) and Kingaroy (53MWp) installations in Queensland and the Wyalong (75MWp) plant in New South Wales. The projects were progressively acquired over the course of 2019 and 2020 as part of Mytilineos’ expansion into the Australian market, and once constructed are expected to produce around 500GWh of power annually.
The majority of the power produced at the farms has been sold in a series of long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs); CS Energy, the Queensland government-owned utility, will offtake power from the Moura solar farm, Wyalong has a PPA with Australian state-owned broadband wholesaler NBN Co and Smartest Energy has signed a PPA for power produced at the Kingaroy installation.
The Moura project is fully constructed and undergoing hold point testing, whilst construction is expected to complete on the Wyalong site in H1 2023 and the Kingaroy solar farm has begun construction with the majority of works to be carried out over the next year.
The financing is structured as a combination of term facility, construction facility and ancillary facilities totalling AU$234 million (US$156 million).
Nikos Papapetrou, executive director of Mytilineos’ M Renewables said: “Australia is a key market for Mytilineos’ global renewables development strategy, extending across the Asia-Pacific, Europe and Latin America regions. We are pleased with the trust given to the company and to our vision in the region and we look forward to many more successful financings for our future projects.”
In October this year, Mytilineos’ renewables and storage departments saw their most successful quarter in its history, posting net profits of €312 million (US$310 million) in the first nine months of the year. In June, the company announced that it is developing over 750MW of solar PV in Chile in an exclusive with PV Tech.
