Yarranlea solar farm secures finance with Infradebt, on “merchant” basis

The 103MW Yarranlea solar farm developed by Risen Energy in Queensland’s Darling Downs region has announced the close of a senior debt facility with boutique infrastructure fund manager, Infradebt.

The project, which completed its mechanical installation in late 2019 and the commissioning process in early 2020, has been fully operational and exporting into the Queensland energy market on a merchant basis for more than a year.

Infradebt said on Monday that it had worked closely with Risen to provide a debt facility that supported its strategy, which the renewables developer has flagged could involve the addition of battery storage in the future.

The Yarranlea solar, which is sited 180km west of Brisbane, is Infradebt’s third large-scale PV project in Queensland to be financed on a full merchant basis.

“As a specialist credit manager in renewable energy we are looking for stable and steady income streams,” said Infradebt CEO Alexander Austin in a statement. “Our solutions provide borrowers with flexibility whilst recognising the long-term intrinsic value of merchant projects.”

Austin said that 2021 had been “a busy year” for the fund manager, with this latest transaction marking the 27th project financed it had financed since being established.

“We are pleased to have executed on our mandates over the past  few years in assembling a diverse portfolio of renewable debt investments,” Austin added.

Eric Lee, the general manager of Risen Energy Australia, said the company was proud of Yarranlea, which he described as a “landmark” project.

“It is great to have senior debt finance in place for the Yarranlea Solar Farm. We look forward to continue building our portfolio of Australian projects.”