Aquila Capital Buying 440MWh Of Battery Storage Projects In South Australia
Sustainable investment manager Aquila Capital will acquire a pipeline of large-scale battery storage projects in development in Australia, from Spain’s Gransolar Group.
Gransolar’s dedicated energy storage subsidiary E22, said this morning that an agreement is in place concerning the sale of 220MW/440MWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) facilities.
E22’s three projects are all standalone lithium-ion BESS facilities in South Australia and the developer said it will sell them to Aquila Capital in their “ready-to-build” phase, after E22 has advanced the development process.
The Spanish company identified the Australian market as one of high value opportunities in the short-term and aims to develop 1GW/2GWh of projects there by the end of this year. It said today that it hopes to develop a model of selling on BESS projects under development in the Australian market that can be replicated in other high value markets such as the UK and US.
In March, E22 appointed energy storage system integrator Fluence to supply software to optimise the market performance of Gransolar’s first BESS project in Australia, a 5MW/7.5MWh system in Longwarry, Victoria.
E22 is also active in technology supply, supplying vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) systems as well as lithium-ion BESS. In June the company sent a 300kWh VRFB system assembled in Spain to Australian flow battery company VSUN Energy for installation at a mine in Western Australia, in a project part-funded by an Australian Government Modern Manufacturing Initiative Grant, which aims to support technologies which can be commercialised using domestic raw materials or components.
Aquila Capital meanwhile opened its Asia-Pacific (APAC) office in 2020, headed up by CEO Alexander Lenz, a former executive at Conergy. Our sister site PV Tech reported a few days ago that Aquila Clean Energy, the group’s platform in Europe, had raised financing for 2.6GW of clean energy projects in Southern Europe.
Energy-Storage.news reached out to Aquila Capital for comment but had not received a reply at time of publication. However, the company did post a short comment from Alexander Lenz this morning, with the CEO stating Aquila Capital was “thrilled” to close its first acquisition in Australian market which he called “a key market for us”.
“Energy storage systems are crucial for system stability and efficiency and will be essential to realise the full potential of renewables in Australia,” Lenz said.
Gransolar head of international business development Francisco Garcia said the companies are in “an important alliance with a strong partnership”.
“E22 as part of our global development strategy, with Australia, UK and USA as leading markets, will accompany our clients as a reliable partner,” Garcia said.
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