Tasmania landowners sign up Malaysia energy company to deliver wind, solar and battery projects

A Malaysian energy company has bought into two of Tasmania’s landowner driven renewable energy developments, with a deal to deliver the projects and to take an equity stake. 

Gamuda Berhad’s local subsidiary has signed on to deliver the Cellars Hill wind farm and neighbouring Weasel solar farm, alongside prominent Tasmanian landowner Peter Downie and current development partner Alternate Path. 

Gamuda – and engineering and infrastructure specialist – is buying to a portfolio that says it is working hard to keep neighbours happy and give back to the community, to the point that the layout of the wind farm in particular was shrunk and turbines shifted to ensure they’re hidden as much as possible from nearby towns.

Gamuda says it is “committed to continue the landowner-led principles of the portfolio”.

Downie says his side was “selective” in choosing a partner which would be committed to their values.

“We have been highly selective in finding the right partner to work with us to develop this portfolio that brings both a financial and technical contribution and is wholly committed to the strong social licence and landowner-led principles of these projects,” he said in a statement. 

“We have been in discussion with Gamuda for many months and have seen their genuine partnership approach and commitment to our community values.”

Gamuda has bought equity in the portfolio, which gave the company the delivery rights to the 56-turbine, 350 megawatt (MW) Cellars Hill wind farm and its accompanying 600 MW/ 2400 MWh battery, and the 250MW Weasel solar facility with its own 144 MW, 576 MWh big battery.

In response to questions from Renew Economy, a Gamuda representative said while the company is a long term asset holder, it will likely sell down a portion of its equity interest later to the right investor. The Downie family and Alternate Path are also open to selling down as well.

The partnership is focused on Tasmania as they see big opportunities for both energy and related projects in the island state, says Alternate Path’s Andrew Clark.

The deal is still subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval.

Big shift from rail, infrastructure

Gamuda has a significant presence in Australian construction and engineering, but only in the last 18 months has it started to carve out a presence in renewable energy. 

It has early contractor agreements for Alinta Energy’s Oven Mountain pumped hydro project in New South Wales (NSW), Copenhagen Infrastructure Partner’s Capricornia pumped hydro project in Queensland, and last month won a contract to build the Boulder Creek wind farm in Queensland. 

The Tasmania deal is a step up into asset ownership, says Gamuda’s Jarred Hardman.

“This deal represents our first Australian investment [in renewable energy],” he said in a statement. 

“This builds upon our ongoing success in the Australian infrastructure market where we are delivering a $4.5bn pipeline.”

Smooth sailing

Tasmania, and particularly the Downie/Alternate Path projects, were a good place for Gamuda to start its Australian foray if the smooth approvals pathway is any indication. 

Federal environmental planners waved the central highlands solar farm and battery through in May with no conditions, and came to a decision that Cellars Hill is a controlled action in less than a month. 

The partnership Gamuda is joining – the Downie family and Andrew Clark from Alternate Path, and for the solar farm the Bowden family from Weasel Plains – plans to start construction for Weasel solar in fiscal 2027 and Cellars Hill a year later.

Gamuda will also need to buy into the vision of giving back to the Downie’s and the Bowden’s community — who are also the near neighbours of both projects — and the higher upfront and ongoing project costs that this entails.

Downie is behind the Cattle Hill wind farm, which was the first to introduce the Identiflight technology to spot and halt turbines when endangered Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles are in the air.

That means Cellars Hill will also be using the latest version of this technology.

The solar farm is being designed to safely allow sheep grazing under the solar panels – a cost the developer bears but whose benefit is felt by the landowner and the ultimate asset owner in the form of lower vegetation management costs.

Both projects are feeding into a vision to create an industrial precinct in the region which can power data centres and alternative fuel production to bring back jobs. 

“Key early decisions to facilitate agrisolar include consideration of sufficient panel row spacing width, panel clearance heights, working with land contours to avoid significant earthworks, and water point and paddock location design,” Alternate Path’s Clark said in May.  

See also: Tasmania has a new controversial wind project: A 3 GW behemoth proposed for Tarkine wilderness