Portugal-headquartered renewable energy giant EDP, through EDP Renewables Australia (EDPR) has partnered with the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) to deliver the Punchs Creek Renewable Energy Project near Toowoomba.
Located 64 kilometres southwest of Toowoomba, the 480 MW solar farm co-located with a 400 MW / 1,600 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) is targeted for financial close in early 2026 with the potential for further projects coming on line as part of the long-term partnership.
Punchs Creek is one of two EDPR projects with successful bids in the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) Tender 4, announced in October 2025, and includes the 450 MW / 1,800 MWh Merino Solar Farm solar plus battery project in New South Wales (NSW).
EDP Renewables APAC Chief Executive Officer Miguel Fonseca said the strategic step builds on EDPR’s recent momentum in the Australian market.
“EDPR views Queensland and Australia as key markets with strong fundamentals for renewables and is focusing on scaling hybrid projects, with the aim of deploying material capacity by 2030 as part of a longer-term pipeline of about 4GW,” Fonesca said.
“As a leading Australian infrastructure manager with more than a decade investing in the energy transition, QIC brings everything we look for in a local partner to unlock these projects and explore further opportunities.”
QIC Head of Global Infrastructure Ross Israel said that CIC has long recognised collaboration between institutional investors, infrastructure managers and developers is central to realising opportunities across the energy value chain.
“While EDPR has an operational footprint spanning four continents, Punchs Creek marks their first Australian project as part of a pipeline of solar and battery opportunities,” Israel said.
QIC recently announced the acquisition of 19.9% of AGL Energy Limited’s minority stake in Tilt Renewables, moving to 99.9% ownership of Australia’s largest operating wind farm.
“With a focus on solar and battery storage projects, the partnership we are building with EDPR perfectly complements Tilt’s wind-focused strategy. It provides the option for EDPR, Tilt and QIC to explore the possibilities of developing a market leading combination,” Israel said.
“We are excited to unite local and global expertise to accelerate Australia’s shift to clean energy and deliver long-term value for our investors.”
Both parties are currently negotiating the transaction documents related to this joint investment.
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.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.