Infratil seeks $280 million with eye to renewables and storage projects

New Zealand infrastructure investor Infratil is raising $NZ300 million ($A280 million) in new capital with an eye to funding a growing pipeline of opportunities in large scale renewable energy and battery storage projects.

Infratil owns a majority share of the listed Tilt Renewables, with operations and major new projects in Australia and New Zealand, but the new capital raising appears focused on renewable and storage opportunities in Europe and the US, as well as its growing portfolio of data centres.

CEO Marko Bogoievski says the biggest near term opportunities will likely go to the Longroad Energy renewable and storage business based in the US, and the new Galileo renewable energy platform in Europe.

Longroad Energy, in which Infratil holds a 40 per cent stake, has 594MW of utility scale solar under construction in Texas and California, and 313MW of utility scale wind under construction (Texas and Minnesota), and another 6000MW pipeline of solar and wind projects.

It is also a winning bidder of large scale solar and battery storage projects in Hawaii, an island grid heading to 100 per cent renewables by 2030. The combination of renewables and storage is a model that Bogoievski says will become more widespread in other markets.

He says the newly established Galileo platform in Europe will also invest in the development of wind and solar energy projects and storage solutions across all of Europe.

“That’s where I’d expect the majority of capital to go,” Bogoievski said in reference to Longroad and Galileo, and the CDC data centre business. “(Galileo) is busy looking at its pipeline of development options … which could go quiet quickly … and we will be looking to do just that with this equity support,” he said.

Bogoievski says Tilt Renewables also a significant portfolio of development projects in Australia, but after the $1 billion sale of its Snowtown 2 assets is well placed to fund new term opportunities, even after a capital return to shareholders, which will boost the Infratil coffers by around $160 million.

Infratil completed the institutional placement of $NZ250 million on Wednesday morning. A public share raising will be held later.

RenewEconomy and its sister sites One Step Off The Grid and The Driven will continue to publish throughout the Covid-19 crisis, posting good news about technology and project development, and holding government, regulators and business to account. But as the conference market evaporates, and some advertisers pull in their budgets, readers can help by making a voluntary donation here to help ensure we can continue to offer the service free of charge and to as wide an audience as possible. Thank you for your support.