Spain’s Banco Santander plans to join Australia’s CBD Energy to finance and develop the 108MW Taralga wind farm in Australia by taking a 90 per cent stake in the A$250m ($258m) project.
CBD will own the remaining 10 per cent of the project under the proposal, which would be Banco Santander’s first foray into Australia’s wind industry.
The Spanish group says it has an exclusive option to negotiate the deal, which is subject to the completion of final due diligence.
Taralga, in the state of New South Wales, is currently owned by developer RES Australia.
The announcement of the Spanish group’s plans came after CBD revealed a power purchase agreement (PPA) had been reached with Australian retailer TRUenergy to buy all the electricity generated by Taralga.
David Swindin, Banco Santander’s head of credit markets in Asia-Pacific, says the bank has been working with CBD for some time on evaluating the project.
“It is one of the few shovel-ready projects in Australia with an off-take agreement,” Swinden says.
Banco Santander is in the process of looking at other projects CBD has brought to it, he adds.
Renewable power generator and retailer CBD has been acting on behalf of RES Australia since earlier this year in a consultancy role to obtain a PPA, identify investors, and find an EPC contractor.
CBD’s AusChina joint venture with China’s Datang Renewable and Tianwei Baobian had originally planned to buy and develop Taralga, but this did not materialise.
Although the Australian company has previously denied AusChina was on the rocks, Recharge revealed yesterday that CBD is in the process of negotiating an end to its involvement in the joint venture, majority-owned by Datang – which holds 63.75 per cent compared to CBD’s 23.75 per cent.
AusChina had planned to use China-made turbines, but the latest development would potentially put the supply contract for the wind farm into play for global manufacturers.
A contractor for Taralga is expected to be announced “in a few weeks”, a source close to the project told Recharge. No timelines are given for operations to begin.
