Two of Australia’s largest infrastructure fund managers, IFM Investors and QIC, have jointly led a new renewable energy program – the largest multi-asset, multi-state program of its kind in Australia – which will help reduce electricity costs and greenhouse gas emissions at key Australian airports, ports, energy utilities, roads and hospitals.
Renewable Energy Hub, utilising their CORE Market software platform, designed and executed the scheme of large-scale power-purchase agreements (PPAs), which will be delivered in three stages; and estimated the project will facilitate the supply of more than 400 GWh of renewable energy per annum by 2025.
Stage 1 of the program will cover seven critical infrastructure assets across New South Wales and Victoria, including Melbourne Airport, NSW Ports, Southern Cross Station, Ausgrid, Nexus Hospitals, NorthWestern Roads Group’s WestLink M7 and Transurban’s CityLink, which has also joined the program.
In the first stage, these assets are expected to collectively procure from Origin approximately 132 GWh of renewable energy per annum, representing enough energy to power 23,000 Australian homes per year and, by using wind energy, could save 85,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions being released into the atmosphere – the equivalent of removing 50,000 cars from Australian roads.
By 2025, the entire program is expected to save around 250,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually – the equivalent of reducing the carbon footprint of every home in a regional town the size of Ballarat in Victoria, or Toowoomba in Queensland, to zero.
It is expected other critical assets will join the program as part of stages 2 and 3 to be announced in coming months.
The significant demand for renewable energy created by the three stages could pave the way
