Australian fund manager’s wind and solar pipeline hits 10GW, but most of it is overseas

Australian funds manager IFM says it has grown its pipeline of renewable energy opportunities to 10GW – nearly 15 times its current installed capacity – but most of it is overseas thanks to a series of investments in European and US companies.

The pipeline is mainly in solar, and held within the IFM infrastructure arm.

The 10GW figure is broken down into 3GW with Spanish multinational Naturgy, 1.2GW from Buckeye and 3.8GW with Swift Current Energy in the US, and 0.7GW from ERG and 2GW from Nala Renewables in Europe and the UK.

IFM bought Texas-based Buckeye in 2019, a company that calls itself a direct descendant of Standard Oil, the dominant force in America’s emerging oil industry in the 1800s.

The infrastructure investor took an 85 per cent stake in US company Swift Current Energy and spent an initial €1 billion ($AU1.6 billion) with Italian company San Quirico to acquire onshore wind power company ERG in June. Impala Terminals spin-out Nala Renewables is a 50:50 joint venture with Trafigura.

IFM also has 700 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity in its infrastructure portfolio, it said in its Responsible Business Report that was released on Wednesday.

“In the 12 months to 30 June 2022, we continued to focus on driving and supporting portfolio companies across all asset classes to transition to the new clean economy,” CEO David Neal said in the report.

“We also launched new products that aim to harness investment opportunities presented by the global energy transition, while supporting our investors to meet their net zero aspirations.

“An example of this is our new Net Zero Infrastructure portfolio’s investment in ERG S.p.A., a renewables business offering exposure to core European markets across the onshore wind and solar sectors.”

In Australia, IFM’s renewable energy projects tend to be small-scale and part of larger investments such as a 6MW solar installation at Brisbane Airport and 14MW of extra on-site solar at Melbourne Airport.

In March, the infrastructure fund manager and Queensland Investment Corporation signed a $500 million deal with Origin Energy to supply 400GWh of renewable energy to key holdings by 2025, including from Stockyard Hill (pictured above).