Australian renewable energy infrastructure developer and operator CleanPeak Energy (CPE) has acquired five new solar farm and battery energy storage system (BESS) development sites across the state of New South Wales from Sydney-based private equity firm Fortitude Renewables.
Funded via shareholder equity commitments, the acquisitions are CPE’s first since July 2025, when it announced a partnership with US-headquartered private equity firm KKR, which has committed $500 million (USD 338 million) in funding to CPE.
Expected to be operational by early 2027, the five projects will contribute an additional 25 MW of solar capacity and 100 MWh of battery storage capacity to CPE’s existing portfolio.
CPE Energy Chief Executive Officer Philip Graham said the acquisition of the Fortitude portfolio allows the company to accelerate the delivery of green energy to its portfolio of contracted customers.
“This transaction is another example of our company moving quickly to capitalise on high quality assets that fit well within our portfolio,” Graham said.
Fortitude Managing Director Gordon Ou said on LinkedIn that the acquisition of its portfolio by CPE “ensures long-term delivery of clean, affordable and reliable power for communities and businesses across NSW”.
Four of the project purchases have already been completed, each with connection agreements for a 5 MW solar farm and BESS.
Engie buys out Eku to achieve 100% ownership of Hazelwood BESS
French energy company Engie has acquired London-headquartered Eku Energy’s minority stake in Engie’s 150 MW / 150 MWh Hazelwood BESS, including the ongoing HBESS 2.0 project to build a second battery.
Acquisition of Eku’s 30% minority interest in the BESS plus its expansion, delivers 100% ownership of the Hazelwood BESS to Engie.
ENGIE Australia Managing Director of Renewables and Batteries Laura Caspari said full ownership of the Hazelwood Battery allows the company to progress expansion plans.
“This consolidates our commercialisation plans, including ongoing work to expand the battery capacity at the Hazelwood site,” Caspari said.
The operational Hazelwood BESS is located in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria, 161 kilometres east of Melbourne, and is both Engie’s first BESS in Australia and the first in the country to be built on the site of a former coal power station.
The Hazelwood BESS was officially opened on 14 June 2023 jointly funded and developed by Engie and Eku Energy, and was supplied by Fluence Energy, which operates, and maintains the facility.
Hazelwood BESS is the first project in Australia to use Fluence’s Gridstack energy storage product.
Victoria’s legislated energy storage targets are at least 2.6 GW of energy storage capacity by 2030, and at least 6.3 GW by 2035.
Stories via pv magazine Australia.
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.
Your email address will not be published.
This website uses cookies to anonymously count visitor numbers. View our privacy policy.
The cookie settings on this website are set to “allow cookies” to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click “Accept” below then you are consenting to this.
Close
