VH Global Sustainable Energy Opportunities is acquiring and developing two solar and storage hybrid sites in Australia for £16.9m (€19.7m).

The London-listed company managed by Victory Hill Capital Partners said the investment to build the solar projects with co-located battery energy storage systems (BESS) in New South Wales (NSW) increases the firm’s aggregate commitment to its Australian renewable power generation and storage investment programme from the initial commitment of £50m to £58.5m.

In August 2021, VH Global announced the Australian energy transition programme, with a plan to commit £50m to acquire a portfolio of distributed solar generation assets with plans to build embedded BESS capacity.

The latest project adds two 4.95MW solar photovoltaic sites in NSW to the programme, with co-located two-hour BESS on each site, bringing the total capacity of the Australian energy transition programme to 37MW/60MWh, across seven assets.

Richard Lum, co-CIO of Victory Hill Capital Partners, said: “We continue to make progress with the continued build-out of our Australian solar and energy storage hybrid programme. Once operational, these assets will play a meaningful role in providing needed renewable generation into the Australian energy system, as well as helping the system on its transition pathway to net zero.

”Furthermore, investors are offered a means to access interesting market pricing margins in a risk-adjusted way, given we aim to hedge half of all production. We believe that the Australian market continues to offer excellent opportunities to support their ongoing transition towards net zero.”

The construction of the two sites is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2024, with completion expected in early 2025.

Birdwood Energy, VH Global’s existing Australian operating partner, will serve as the operating partner for the two additional sites. 

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