Enel Green Power Australia has agreed to acquire QEM’s 1 GW Julia Creek renewables project in Australia, in north-west Queensland. The project is situated next to QEM’s flagship Julia Creek oil shale and vanadium project. It will use a combination of solar and wind energy to produce 1 GW of power. Enel will provide an upfront payment of A$3 million, two contingent milestone payments totaling A$4 million, and another contingent milestone payment after making a final investment decision. In addition, QEM will be paid revenue-based royalties for the duration of the project, ranging from 1 per cent to 2 per cent.
Reportedly, the company will be supplied with 25 MW to power the mining operations under a ten-year power purchase agreement. Enel will also acquire more than 18 months of wind and solar data and intellectual property related to engineering, environmental, geotechnical, flood plain and other project-related studies. The data was collected to support a renewable power generation optimisation study. QEM has completed the study after installing monitoring equipment on-site and gathering more than a year’s worth of live data crucial for the project’s advancement.
Earlier this month, Enel, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Enel Green Power North America Inc. (EGPNA), finalised an agreement with ORMAT Technologies Inc. on the sale of a renewable asset portfolio for a total consideration of €250 million, subject to customary transactional adjustments in the US. The assets sold include EGPNA’s entire geothermal portfolio as well as a number of small solar plants, with a total capacity of 150 MW of operating plants.
REGlobal’s Views: This project is one of Queensland’s largest renewable energy hybrid projects, and will make way for more such projects in the future. Enel was picked amongst other bidders to build this project showing the demand for good quality renewable energy assets worldwide. As large energy majors want to expand their portfolio quickly, acquisitions are often easier than setting up new projects from scratch, and for sellers such projects continue to fetch good value.
