The Australian arm of Denmark-based European Energy announced it has reached financial close on the 56 MW Mokoan Solar Farm and commenced construction of the project near Winton in northeast Victoria.
European Energy said its in-house EPC team is steering the project through the construction phase which it anticipates will be complete in 2025. Once fully operational, the Mokoan Solar Farm, featuring bifacial solar panels spread across a 94-hectare site, is expected to generate approximately 113 GWh of clean energy annually.
“We are thrilled to reach our first financial close in Australia,” European Energy Australia Country Manager Catriona McLeod said.
“We see this as the start of many projects by European Energy in the country. We are eager to leverage our capability across renewable energy development, EPC, financing and operations to contribute to meeting Australia’s renewable energy targets.”
European Energy reached its final investment decision on the Mokoan project in November 2023 after acquiring the project from Lightsource bp in late 2022. The project received development approval from the local council in December 2018, and planning approval from the state government in June 2020.
The project finance debt funding was sourced from Norddeutsche Landesbank’s (Nord/LB) Singapore branch in the form of a loan facility.
The progress on the Mokan Solar Farm comes after European Energy recently announced it had signed a power purchase agreement with mining giant Rio Tinto for 100% of the output from the proposed 1.1 GW Upper Calliope Solar Farm being developed in Queensland.
Under the 25-year agreement, Rio Tinto will buy all power generated from the plant that is to be built and operated by European Energy, pending development and grid connection approvals.
European Energy’s Vice President of Project Development, Thorvald Spanggaard, said Australia has firmed as one of the company’s key markets.
“Australia presents a highly promising market for renewable energy projects,” he said. “We currently have over 5 GW under active development in Australia and a further 3 GW in screening, and we aim to realise these in the coming years.”
European Energy is also developing the 1 GW Sawpit Solar Farm in central Queensland.
The company has built more than 270 operating wind and solar projects and has a global development pipeline of more than 60 GW.
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