Wollemi Capital pumps $100 million into distributed solar, battery strategy

Climate-focused venture capital firm Wollemi Capital has committed to investing more than $100 million to expand renewables developer MPower’s pipeline of mid-scale solar and battery energy storage projects after finalising its acquisition of the company.

September 10, 2025 David Carroll

Image: Wollemi Capital

Australian investment firm Wollemi Capital has bought substantially all of MPower’s business for $19 million (USD 12.53 million), promising to invest more than $100 million to build out its pipeline of mid-scale solar farms and battery projects.

“This is a significant milestone,” MPower Chief Executive Officer Nathan Wise said. “With Wollemi’s support, we’re now positioned to accelerate the rollout of reliable clean energy assets and become a next-generation renewable energy producer.”

Headquartered in Sydney, MPower has established its place in Australia’s energy market by delivering turn-key solar, battery and microgrid projects for clients across the region. It has also advanced a build, own, operate strategy with the focus squarely on the mid-scale sector, having identified that projects of 5 MW or less can avoid some of the risks associated with large-scale projects, such as grid constraints, social license concerns and planning delays.

Wise said the scale of MPower’s future opportunity is large but the company has faced challenges in securing project funding, adding that the sale to Wollemi will ensure it has the balance sheet strength to execute on its growth ambitions.

“Wollemi’s strategic alignment, growth focus and energy transition expertise make it uniquely positioned to create future value by combining its investment expertise and financial resources with the skills, assets and opportunity that the MPower business brings,” he said.

The acquisition includes MPower’s renewable energy platform, the Lakeland solar and storage facility, that comprises 10.8 MW of PV and a 1.4 MW / 5.3 MWh battery energy storage system in north Queensland, other assets, and a pipeline of project opportunities.

Wollemi Director Matt Kean, the chairman of the Climate Change Authority and a former New South Wales treasurer, said the investment in MPower allows the company to accelerate the rollout of renewable energy projects while avoiding some of the key bottlenecks slowing Australia’s transition to a cleaner grid.

“We can’t afford to wait on big transmission builds,” he said. “Distributed renewables assets like MPower’s are faster to deploy and critical to reaching Australia’s energy targets.”

Wollemi said the distributed-scale projects have a much shorter lead time, a smaller development footprint and can utilise spare capacity within the network without requiring substantial new network infrastructure.

They also capitalise on the technological advances which have seen battery energy storage costs plummet by over 80% in the last decade while performance has significantly improved, with greater energy density, faster charging, longer lifespans, and enhanced safety features.

Wollemi co-founder and co-CEO Paul Hunyor, who has been appointed chairman of MPower to guide its next phase of growth, said the two parties will work closely to expand the pipeline of mid-scale solar and battery projects to meet the challenges of the energy transition head-on.

“MPower is a proven operator with a smart, executable strategy,” he said. “It’s well placed to scale up capital deployment and become a major owner-operator of distributed energy.”

“Whether behind the meter or connected to the grid, distributed energy infrastructure will play a big role in delivering cleaner, more resilient electricity for Australian energy consumers.”

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.