Octopus snaps up another 400MW wind project in NSW

Octopus Australia, the local offshoot of the UK-based renewables giant, has boosted its Australian portfolio with the purchase of the 400MW Hay Plains wind project in south-west NSW.

The purchase, from Juwi Renewable Energy, is part of the Octopus of building a renewable energy portfolio around large scale wind projects and boosting this with solar and battery storage projects.

“The acquisition marks a major milestone in Octopus Australia’s strategy to build a portfolio of energy assets which model what a future clean energy generation base will look like in Australia,” said Sam Reynolds, he head of Octopus Australia.

“These cornerstone wind assets supplemented with Octopus’s storage and solar developments across the NEM are designed to be an integrated, multi-technology portfolio that can offer truly unique and differentiated PPA products to energy customers and sustainable value to investors.”

The addition of the Hay Plains project – which is located near Hay in the newly created south-west renewable energy zone in NSW, adds to the 180MW Dulacca wind farm in Queensland which is now operational, and the Gillard wind project in Victoria.

Octopus also owns the 330MW Darlington Point solar farm, the largest in NSW, and the Fulham storage and solar project in Victoria, which will combine 80MW of solar and up to 120MWh of battery storage.

Christian Cronje, the head of Juwi’s operations in the Asia-Pacific, said the sale reflects the company’s decision to focus on providing renewable energy solutions to the mining and resource sector.