Global oil giant Shell has bought a half share in one of Australia’s biggest wind project developers as it continues its push into green technologies that has already included solar, battery storage, green energy retailers and EV charging.
The company announced on Tuesday that Shell Energy Operations, a wholly owned unit, had agreed to buy a 49 per cent share of Australian wind farm developer WestWind Energy Development, which has a 3GW project pipeline across Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
The deal does not include the massive Golden Plains wind and battery project in Victoria, in which WestWind sold a “meaningful” stake to Tag Energy, but does include the Warracknabeal project in Victoria which could be around the same size and feature a big battery.
Shell’s purchase of the stake in WestWind is similar to its investment in solar farm developer Esco Pacific, and also follows its direct investment in the 100MW Gangarri solar project in Queensland, which is going through the commissioning process now after some delays.
But it is also significant for Shell’s retail activities, having bought the commercial and industrial focused ERM a few years ago, and more recently the retail-focused Powershop, which sparked a backlash from some customers.
Shell also owns the German battery maker sonnen, which has widespread operations in Australia, and has struck a deal with steel maker Bluescope to install an electrolyser to test the green hydrogen market and technologies.
“This is really exciting announcement for us,” Shell Australia boss Tony Nunan told RenewEconomy.
“We didn’t yet have a presence in wind in Australia, although we had one globally, mostly in Europe, but also in the US, and mostly offshore. Wind is very important to provide energy outside daylight hours.”
Westwind’s Tobias Geiger said the investment from Shell would allow the company, whose other major successes include the Lal Lal wind project (now owned by Macquarie), to accelerate the development of a number of large number of its projects in Victoria, NSW and Queensland.
Geiger would not reveal which projects were likely to get built, or fast-tracked, apart from Waracknabeal, saying discussions with landowners were continuing.
“Warracknabeal will be a similar size to Golden Plains,” Geiger told RenewEconomy. It will be around 1.2GW in size and also have a big battery.
“This gives us the capital we need to accelerate the business. They (Shell) have they got a clear strategic plan to transfer their business from fossil fuels to one focused on electricity.”
Nunan said Gangarri, despite its construction delays and teeth problems, had provided “a great learning opportunity” for the company. “It was the first opportunity to do a large scale solar farm,” he said.
And despite some of the campaigns from rival retailers to attract customers away from Powershop following its purchase of the retailer, Nunan insisted that the customer position was “broadly the same”, with “some customers churning out and some customers churning in.”
He said: “We respect the views of people who think that renewable energy can only be done by renewable energycompanies. At Shell we believe that it is about a transition, and we want to be there with our customers, we want them to get access to clean renewable power.”
The addition of wind is key to Shell’s ambitious to build a substantial global electricity platform, and take on the industry incumbents in Australia.
“Our first wind investment in Australia is a significant step in our goal to build a low-carbon integrated power business in Australia in line with our customers’ evolving energy needs,” he said.
Shell aims to sell around 560 terawatt hours a year globally by 2030 as part of its Integrated Power business, twice as much electricity as its businesses sell today, and about three times the production of Australia’s main grid.
Shell and Westwind did not disclosed financial details of its acquisition, which is expected to complete in 2022 but is subject to regulatory approvals.
