Brookfield kicks off Australian renewables splurge with 400MW wind farm and battery

The renewable energy arm of Canadian investment giant Brookfield, the proposed new owner of Origin Energy, has announced plans to co-develop, own and operate a 400MW wind farm and big battery in central Queensland.

Brookfield Renewable said on Wednesday that it has formed a strategic partnership with Australian developer Greenleaf Renewables to co-develop a range of projects along Australia’s east coast, focusing on wind and energy storage.

The first of these is the 400MW Moonlight Range wind farm, which is in the development phase in Greenleaf’s pipeline of projects. The wind farm, which will include energy storage, is targeting 2025 construction.

The wind farm marks Brookfield’s first renewables project in Australia, and kicks off the 14GW of wind, solar and energy storage capacity that the investment giant says it wants to build for Origin Energy Markets.

“The Moonlight Range Wind Farm will be the first of many renewable power projects for Brookfield in Australia as we expand our presence in this market,” said Brookfield managing director and head of renewable power and transition in Australia, Luke Edwards.

“Approximately 8GW of coal fired power generation capacity is expected to come offline by 2030 – this generation needs to be replaced with new sources of clean energy.

“We are pleased to be working in partnership with Greenleaf Renewables on this opportunity and look forward to progressing additional development opportunities in the near future,” Edwards said.

Greenleaf Renewables directors Chris Righetti and Tim Gregson say Moonlight Range, now backed by the heft of Brookfield, will generate enough electricity to power around 200,000 homes and will create 300 jobs during construction.

“The ongoing partnership we have established with Brookfield Renewable is a great validation of our business and the Australian renewables market,” Gregson said.

The collaboration with Greenleaf comes just days after Brookfield announced it had sealed the deal to purchase Origin, landing funding and a board agreement, setting in motion plans for a $20 billion plus splurge on Australian renewables and storage assets.

The $18.7 billion takeover – made through a scheme of arrangement in conjunction with Mid-Ocean Energy, which will buy Origin’s LNG business – is still subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, but the major hurdles have been successfully negotiated.