German-headquartered solar developer Enerparc has sold 193MW worth of its Australian solar PV assets to Ingka Group, the owner of furniture retailer IKEA.
The portfolio constitutes three projects in New South Wales, the most significant of which is a 180MW project expected to come online in late 2025. Two smaller PV parks, located in Peak Hill and Trundle in central-west NSW, account for a further combined 13.3MW.
The assets are expected to produce a cumulative 340GWh of electricity annually once they are all operational. The transaction fee was not disclosed.
Benjamin Hannig, managing director of Enerparc Australia, said: “We are proud to have sold this solar PV portfolio in Australia to an ambitious and reputable investor, marking a significant achievement for Enerparc.
“We remain committed to delivering innovative and sustainable energy solutions in Australia and look forward to advancing further projects of our pipeline in the near future.”
Ingka Group and Enerparc have a pre-existing partnership with Ingka’s investment arm putting up over US$370 million last April for Enerparc to develop 440MW of PV in Spain and Germany to power the countries’ IKEA branches.
The solar PV market in Australia is seemingly both growing and struggling in different ways. A report from SunWiz showed that the residential PV market is going from strength to strength, hitting 20GW of installed capacity last year, but that the pipeline of utility-scale projects may be drying up in the short-to-medium term.
Similarly, whilst Q4 2022 saw record investment for Australian renewables – largely due to the completion of a big-ticket project – warnings have arisen that the next few years may be less reliable, and need more committed financing than Q4 figures suggest.
