Equis returns to Australia with huge wind portfolio and five big battery projects

Renewable energy developer Equis has returned to Australia with a new portfolio that includes up to 800MW of wind projects in Tasmania and five big battery storage projects spread across another four states.

The original Equis, a Singapore-based company that built South Australia’s first solar farm at Tailem Bend, among other projects, was bought by Global Infrastructure Partners in 2018 and later renamed Vena Energy.

The Equis brand has now reappeared in the form of Equis Development, a new company featuring some of its original executives, including co-founder and CEO David Russell, and backing from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the huge Ontario Teachers Pension Plan.

It has now unveiled an ambitious new portfolio in Australia, including wind, battery storage and waste energy. It also has a big development portfolio in other established Asia markets.

Equis CEO Damien Secen says the company hopes to start construction of the first Australian project, the 42MW Low Head wind farm, near Bell Bay in northern Tasmania, in early 2023.

He says this will be the first of a portfolio of 800MW wind projects in the state’s central highlands and in the state’s north that it wants to develop following the announcement by the federal, Tasmania and Victoria governments of their financial support for the new Marinus Link to the mainland.

Secen, a former senior Macquarie Group banker, says the projects would require an investment of approximately $1.5 billion into Tasmania and deliver up to 800MW of renewable energy, supporting over 1,000 full time construction jobs.

Equis has also revealed an extensive portfolio of battery storage projects, including a 1600MWh facility near Melbourne, that will be paired with a small 12.5MW solar farm, a 300MW/1200MWh battery near Tamworth in NSW, and a 200MW/800MWh battery at Brinkworth in South Australia.

It is also looking to develop two very early stage battery storage projects in Queensland, one defined only as a 200MW facility at Woolooga and another 50MW facility at Mackay.

The company was not available to comment on the timing or prospects of any of these storage projects.

Equis says it has offices in Australia, including Sydney and Launceston, as well as Japan, Singapore and South Korea, with a focus on the developed markets within the region.