Brookfield partners with Victorian developer as it prepares to replace Origin’s fossil fleet

Brookfield Renewable, one of the many arms of the giant Brookfield fund, has formed a “strategic partnership” with a Victorian-based developed Greenleaf Renewables. Founded in 2021, the developer is working on three wind farms in Queensland, but reportedly has another 600 MW of unannounced projects in its pipeline.

Brookfield and Greenleaf plan to jointly develop projects along Australia’s east coast, with a focus on wind and energy storage projects, the pair said. The first will be the 400 MW Moonlight Range Wind Farm in Queensland, which Greenleaf has previously been working on.

Together, the pair will develop, build, own and operate the proposed project in central Queensland, with construction slated for 2025, subject to approvals. Moonlight Range Wind Farm will also include storage, though no further details were given on that front.

“The Moonlight Range Wind Farm will be the first of many renewable power projects for Brookfield in Australia as we expand our presence in this market,” Brookfield’s Managing Director and Head of Renewable Power and Transition in Australia, Luke Edwards, said.

Brookfield has made rather a big splash in Australia in the last year – grabbing major attention in 2022 when it teamed up with Australian tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes to put in a shock bid for Australia’s biggest ‘gentailer’ AGL. This play was ultimately unsuccessful, but in the 12 months since the company shifted its sights to the next player on Australia’s ‘gentailer’ ladder, Origin Energy, for which it put began the formal acquisition process in March. 

On top of the $18.7 billion (USD 12.5 billion) buyout bid, Brookfield has said it plans to spend “at least” $20 billion to build new renewables and storage in Australia over the next decade, equating to roughly 14 GW of capacity – or about one-fifth of the what the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) estimates will be needed by 2030 to reach national targets. 

“Approximately 8 GW of coal fired power generation capacity is expected to come offline by 2030 – this generation needs to be replaced with new sources of clean energy,” Edwards said. Taking ownership of Origin will mean Brookfield has a direct stake in replacing this lost coal generation.

To date, Brookfield Renewable says it has installed more than 25 GW of renewable projects across the world and boasts a global pipeline of approximately 110 GW.

Greenleaf is a far smaller outfit, listing two projects on its website alongside Moonlight Range Wind Farm. Those are the 166 MW Stony Creek Wind Farm and an unnamed project simply listed as ‘Queensland Project 3’ with up to 300 MW of capacity. Both projects are located in southeast Queensland.

Next to Origin, in the last 18 months Brookfield has also acquired Victorian electricity transmission network AusNet Services as well as Spanish developer X-Elio, which has over 500 MW of projects in development in Australia.