Gamuda Renewables has secured an interest in the 450MW Hazelwood North solar-plus-storage project from Latrobe Valley-based developer Manthos Investments.
Marking the Malaysian infrastructure group’s entry into the Victorian energy market, the transaction is subject to approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board. Financial terms have not been disclosed.
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The Hazelwood North project is an approved 450MW hybrid solar and battery energy storage development spanning 1,100 hectares between Morwell and Traralgon in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.
The facility is designed to pair 450MW of solar generation with a 4-hour, 1,800MWh battery energy storage system (BESS). Construction is expected to commence in 2028, with commercial operations targeted in 2030, pending a final investment decision.
Planning approval was granted in September 2024 through Victoria’s Development Facilitation Program. At the time of its approval, the Hazelwood North project was the largest proposed solar PV power plant in Victoria, being developed by Manthos Investments, a family-owned Latrobe Valley business, on a 1,100-hectare property utilising excess grid capacity left by the closure of the Hazelwood coal-fired power station in 2017.
Gamuda Renewables chief strategy and development officer Jarred Hardman said the acquisition captures where the energy transition is heading.
“Hazelwood North marks a significant milestone for us – not only as our first Victorian asset, but as a project that captures exactly where the energy transition is heading. The opportunity to expand the project to include a data centre is something both Manthos and our team are genuinely excited about,” Hardman said.
Gamuda Berhad is listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange and currently operates across nine countries.
The Hazelwood North acquisition is Gamuda Renewables’ third asset in the National Electricity Market (NEM), following the company’s entry into Australian renewable energy development in September 2024.
The developer set an initial target of 1-2GW by 2029, which it says it has achieved in under two years, and has since revised its ambition upward to 5GW of assets under development, construction and operation by 2031.
Gamuda’s Australian construction arm, DT Infrastructure, is also the EPC contractor for Edify Energy’s Smoky Creek and Guthrie’s Gap solar and storage projects in Queensland, both of which are set to be powered by CATL technology.
The Hazelwood North project also connects Gamuda Renewables to the Latrobe Valley’s industrial transition narrative.
The region hosted Australia’s first large-scale battery storage system, built at a decommissioned coal plant. As Energy-Storage.news reported back in 2024, Eku Energy’s 150MW/150MWh Hazelwood BESS became the first grid-scale battery in Australia to be built at a former coal-fired power station, repurposing the site’s transmission infrastructure for storage rather than generation.
The Hazelwood North Solar Farm sits on adjacent land and will draw on the same grid infrastructure that served the former power station, continuing a pattern of renewable energy and storage development on and around the former coal generation footprint.
