Australian electricity retailer AGL Energy confirmed yesterday (14 August) it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire battery energy storage system (BESS) developer Firm Power along with solar PV developer Terrain Solar.
The companies have a combined development pipeline of 8.1GW large-scale solar and BESS projects.
Firm Power, a BESS developer, has 21 grid-scale projects currently in development across Australia, comprising 2.3GW of capacity in New South Wales, 2.7GW in Queensland, 500MW in Western Australia and 300MW in Victoria and South Australia, all in all totalling 5.8GW.
Terrain Solar, a large-scale solar PV developer, has six projects in development with a cumulative capacity of 1.8GW. Of this figure, 1.1GW is based in Queensland, 500MW in New South Wales, 100MW in Western Australia, and under 100MW in South Australia.
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The acquisition will be completed in an A$250 million (US$165.5 million) deal, funded from cash on AGL’s balance sheet. The deal is subject to customary conditions precedent, with completion anticipated in 2024.
Managing director and CEO of AGL Energy, Damien Nicks, said the acquisitions will accelerate the company’s development pipeline, which recently hit 6.2GW of capacity. It will also ensure the company is “best placed to take advantage of market conditions and prioritise developments that generate the best long-term value and be a leader in the energy transition”.
“AGL’s development pipeline includes several mid-sized BESS projects, ranging between 200-500MW and two-to-eight-hours [of] storage duration. We believe this high-quality development pipeline presents strong optionality for AGL, focusing on firming capacity, which will be required to firm new renewable energy generation for our customer base and portfolio as thermal baseload generation exits the National Electricity Market (NEM),” Nicks said.
This article first appeared on our sister site PV Tech.
