Genex Power secures funding for Australia's first pumped hydro project in 40 years
15/04/2021 03:58
April 15 (Reuters) - Genex Power GNX.AX said on Thursday
it had secured all funding needed for what will be Australia's
first new pumped hydro project on the grid in about 40 years,
and expects construction to start towards the end of the month.
The power generation company will receive a A$610 million
($471.16 million) loan from the Northern Australia
Infrastructure Facility for the 250-MW Kidston project, which is
being built at an abandoned gold mine in Queensland.
Australia's renewable energy agency will give A$47 million
in grant, while government-owned green bank the Clean Energy
Finance Corp will provide a further A$3 million of subordinated
debt funding.
The project, which could become a template for similar
projects in abandoned mines and dams all over Australia, had
been left in the lurch since November 2019, when funding fell
through as it could not sign a power sale agreement for the
plant.
In March last year, EnergyAustralia, a unit of Hong Kong's
CLP Holdings 0002.HK and Australia's third-largest energy
retailer, signed an agreement to buy power from the project.
A series of funding agreements followed with a range of
sources, including Japan's Electric Power 9513.T , the Northern
Australia Infrastructure Facility, the Queensland government,
Australia's renewable energy agency, and an underwritten capital
raising. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2IF02X urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2J14CN urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN2LL0UG urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nASN000ZJL
Pumped hydro acts like a giant battery, pumping water uphill
when energy is abundant and releasing it to create power at
night or on a windless day.
($1 = 1.2947 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Arundhati Dutta in Bengaluru; Additional
reporting by Nikhil Kurian Nainan; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
((Arundhati.Dutta@thomsonreuters.com;))