Macquarie spins out new business to accelerate offshore wind, including in Australia

In a potentially game changing move for the renewable energy sector, the Green Investment Group, owned by Australian banking giant Macquarie, has announced plans to launch a specialist offshore wind business which will begin operations next month with a project pipeline of over 15GW.

Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG) – which it acquired off the British Government back in 2017 – will launch Corio Generation, a specialist offshore wind developer with projects across the world, including Australia, and which will be one of the biggest of its type in the world.

Corio will be charged with continuing the development of GIG’s current portfolio of offshore wind projects – which includes already announced projects in the United Kingdom, across Europe, and in Taiwan, Korea, and Australia.

But Corio will also seek to begin development of new projects and take projects from origination, through development and construction, and into operations, and has snapped up some leading players in the industry to guide it through.

“I believe that Corio will play a significant role in accelerating the deployment of offshore wind around the world,” said Jonathan Cole, the incoming CEO of Corio Generation, who previously headed the offshore wind division at Spanish energy giant Iberdrola.

“From day one, we will be able to work with partners, suppliers and investors to deliver a major project pipeline that will not only provide vast quantities of clean affordable electricity but will also support thousands of green jobs.”

Cole has already been responsible for the development, construction, and operation of over 30GW worth of projects in Europe, the Americas, and Asia.

Corio Generation will operate on a standalone basis, but will be backed by access to long-term capital sourced both within banking giant Macquarie and from outside third parties.

Macquarie already supports over 50% of the United Kingdom’s current 10.4GW offshore wind capacity and has also built up experience in emerging offshore wind markets like Taiwan and Korea.

Macquarie is already in the early development stages of a 1GW offshore wind farm set to be located off the Bass Coast of Australia.

“We were one of the earliest investors in the offshore wind market, and over the last decade we’ve built one of the world’s largest development portfolios across the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Australia, Southeast Asia, and beyond,” said Mark Dooley, the global head of Macquarie’s Green Investment Group.

“By leveraging deep expertise and access to capital, Corio will apply all its energy to deliver the next generation of offshore wind projects in established and emerging markets worldwide.”

When Corio enters the field next month, it will create a seismic shift in an industry which, for the most part, is dominated by either a handful of pure-play offshore wind developers, or a mixture of utilities looking to quickly diversify their generation mix.

These include big-name offshore wind developers like Acciona and RWE, and energy companies like Ørsted – which is currently the largest offshore wind developer,.

The offshore wind sector is forecast to leap to 228GW of capacity by 2030, backed by numerous national offshore wind targets around the globe.