NSW sovereign investor backs wind, solar and battery hybrid portfolio in Spain

Treasury Corporation (TCorp), the NSW sovereign investor with some $118 billion worth of assets under management, has decided to invest in a new renewables platform that will combine hybrid wind, solar and battery projects in Spain.

TCorp is to invest in a 50/50 joint venture (JV) alongside London, UK-based investment firm Equitix that will manage a portfolio of 250 megawatts (MW) of operational assets and another 150 MW under construction.

The JV’s usage of the term “hybridisation” refers to the deployment of batteries, solar and also wind at a single site. Although co-locating BESS with a single source of renewable energy generation isn’t uncommon, pairing energy storage with both wind and solar certainly on the main grid is not common.

In Australia it has occurred only once at the Kennedy energy park in Queensland, but Equitix says it has adopted this strategy at several of its projects across Europe, which it says can maximise grid usage and resiliency by reducing intermittency.

With solar and wind having different generation profiles, developers have additional flexibility when it comes to charging the co-located battery, and the battery size can also be optimised.

The JV is targeting the deployment of 1.4GW of generation capacity in Spain by 2030, and says it has exclusivity over a 1GW pipeline of projects.

The joint venture partners say the wind, solar and battery hybrids provide a supply of energy with “baseload characteristics,” that maximises grid usage, improves resilience, protects returns, delivers cost synergies and a streamlined permitting process.

Spain also has a favourable regulatory framework aims to increase the share of renewable power capacity to 81 per cent by 2030.

“This investment will expand and diversify TCorp’s global infrastructure portfolio and position it to capture positive and sustainable returns in the clean energy sector,” said TCorp Chief Investment Officer Stewart Brentnall.