Chicago-based renewable energy developer Bluestar Energy Capital has entered the Australian market after a $US100 million capital raise, and is targeting early stage wind, solar and storage projects.
Bluestar says its Australian operations will be led by Steve Jackson, a former senior executive in Australia for US based solar manufacturer and project developer First Solar and developer and investor FRV, and its main office will be based in Sydney.
Jackson says Bluestar already has one permitted wind project, which it hopes to begin construction in 2024. It will also focus on solar and storage projects.
“The challenge of meeting Australian decarbonization targets is considerable, creating a huge opportunity to build a globally significant platform and I look forward to helping achieve this,” Jackson said in a statement.
The company’s website says its operations in Australia are focused on Queensland, NSW and Victoria, although it does not cite or name any specific projects.
Bluestar was founded last year by Declan Flanagan, a former head of the onshore business of Danish wind giant Orsted, and recently completed a $US100 million initial fund-raising from Flanagan, and S2G Ventures and Great Bay Renewables, and it now has offices in Chicago, Austin, Dublin, and Sydney.
Flanagan remains the biggest and controlling shareholder.
The company says it is focused on “early development” and “opportunistic acquisitions, and its senior executive team includes another four former Orsted executives.
It says its project development pipeline already exceeds 1 gigawatt (GW), which includes its portfolio being developer by Nova Clean Energy in the US.
“This is a long-term and patient plan,” Flanagan said in a sgatement. “There are plenty of challenges to the global energy transition as well as undisciplined capital chasing investments, which makes Bluestar’s greenfield development-focused strategy especially important.”
