PRESS RELEASE
The President of Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) Pablo Zalba and ACCIONA Managing Director for Economics and Finance Carlos Arilla have signed an agreement for a loan of 75 million Australian dollars (51 million euros equivalent) to finance the construction and start-up of the Mt. Gellibrand wind farm in the State of Victoria.
The new wind farm, which will come on stream in the second semester of 2018, has a total capacity of 132 megawatts (MW). The electricity generated by the facility will all be sold in the wholesale market (pool). The Government of the State of Victoria made a commitment to purchase renewable energy certificates for 66 MW of the power generated by the wind farm, following a public tender in 2016. This contract will enable it to purchase certificates for up to ten years.
ACCIONA has been present in Australia since 2002, where it has infrastructure, water and energy projects. Mt. Gellibrand will be the fourth wind farm owned by the company in the country.
Pablo Zalba highlighted “the added value contributed by ICO in this kind of operation, by facilitating finance in local currency”. He also pointed out that “the public bank will continue to promote activities that facilitate the internationalization of Spanish companies so that they can be more competitive”.
Carlos Arilla expressed “satisfaction at the support from ICO in a project that strengthens ACCIONA’s position in the renewables market in Australia, a country where we also have a major presence in the infrastructure and water businesses”.
With this loan ICO has once again shown its support for ACCIONA’s expansion plans abroad. In recent years it has participated in the financing of several projects developed by the Spanish group in other countries, such as the Eurus wind farm in Mexico or the El Romero Solar photovoltaic plant in Chile.
