UK developer Luminous Energy has closed the sale of its 162MW Columboola solar photovoltaic project in Queensland, Australia, to Hana Financial Investment.
The sale follows on from a recently signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Queensland Government-owned utility CS Energy for all the output from the plant.
Construction of the site will begin in September and will be carried out by contractor Sterling and Wilson.
The PV plant is due to be completed by the end of next year.
Luminous developed the project with PwC Australia, which will support Queensland in achieving its target of 50% renewable energy generation by 2030.
The PPA with CS Energy is for 100% of the site’s output, around 450 gigawatt-hours, annually.
The solar farm will be constructed near Miles in Queensland’s Western Downs.
Users of electricity from Columboola will include Griffith University, Central Queensland University and Queensland University of Technology, all of which are CS Energy customers.
Luminous Energy chief executive Jolyon Orchard said: “Australia is a major market in the global solar revolution and the country’s solar industry has huge potential.
This project showcases how innovation can help secure an impactful and prestigious PPA, such as that with CS Energy, and interest from a world class investor, such as Hana Financial Investment.
“It supports our vision to accelerate the growth of the global solar industry by generating low cost, reliable electricity while respecting the natural environment.”
All six of Australia’s states have signed up to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Queensland was Australia’s leading state for large-scale solar projects commissioned in 2019.
Luminous Energy said it designed the Columboola site to have a minimal impact on the surrounding environment, “respecting the indigenous cultural heritage of the site and natural features of the landscape, such as water courses and remnant vegetation”.
The project will create up to 400 new green jobs, supporting a recent call to generate one million clean energy jobs in Australia as part of the green recovery from Covid-19.
PwC Australia advised Luminous Energy across several services, including legal, equity, debt, tax, financial modelling and due diligence and enabled a suite of bankable documents that supported the sale of the project.
Orchard added: “I would like to acknowledge PwC’s role in successfully developing this project, which threw up many challenges.
“We are grateful to them for their tenacity and willingness to share risk in what turned out to be a complex development process.”
Globally, Luminous Energy has a portfolio of solar and storage projects, delivered and in its pipeline, with a total capacity 1.2GW across the UK, US, Australia and Chile.