Australian electricity retailer AGL Energy confirmed yesterday (14 August) that it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire Firm Power and Terrain Solar. The companies have a combined development pipeline of 8.1GW large-scale solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) projects.
Terrain Solar, a large-scale solar PV developer, has six projects in development with a cumulative capacity of 1.8GW. Of this figure, 1.1GW is based in Queensland, 500MW in New South Wales, 100MW in Western Australia, and under 100MW in South Australia.
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Firm Power, a BESS developer, has 21 grid-scale projects currently in development across Australia, comprising 2.3GW of capacity in New South Wales, 2.7GW in Queensland, 500MW in Western Australia and 300MW in Victoria and South Australia.
The acquisition will be completed in an A$250 million (US$165.5 million) deal, funded from cash on AGL’s balance sheet. The deal is subject to customary conditions precedent, with completion anticipated in 2024.
Managing director and CEO of AGL Energy, Damien Nicks, said the acquisitions will accelerate the company’s development pipeline, which recently hit 6.2GW of capacity. It will also ensure the company is “best placed to take advantage of market conditions and prioritise developments that generate the best long-term value and be a leader in the energy transition”.
“AGL’s development pipeline includes several mid-sized BESS projects, ranging between 200-500MW and two-to-eight-hours [of] storage duration. We believe this high-quality development pipeline presents strong optionality for AGL, focusing on firming capacity, which will be required to firm new renewable energy generation for our customer base and portfolio as thermal baseload generation exits the National Electricity Market (NEM),” Nicks said.
AGL to explore solar PV recycling with 40GW needed to be recycled each year
Readers of PV Tech may be aware of AGL’s recent agreement with Australian solar PV recycling group Elecsome, with plans to explore the creation of a solar module recycling plant in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.
Should Elecsome develop the recycling plant, it will be the company’s first commercial-scale solar module recycling facility in New South Wales. The facility is expected to upcycle up to 500,000 residential and grid-scale solar panels annually.
Solar PV recycling is expected to become a more pressing issue as solar projects begin to end their lifetimes. Speaking exclusively to PV Tech on this topic, Australian module manufacturer Tindo Solar’s CEO, Richard Petterson, highlighted that if Australia installed around 1TW of solar modules in around 25 years just to keep the assets running, the nation would need to recycle around 40GW of modules each year.
Should the country be less ambitious and install 500GW, Petterson added that 20GW of modules will still need recycling each year.
“People are focused on transitioning as quickly as possible, but it is just as important to question what managing new energy sources will look like down the track,” said Petterson.
