The company has divested its stake in the A$450m ($338m) project to the Powering Australian Renewables Fund (PARF), the joint venture it established last year with QIC and Future Fund, for A$36m ($27m).
The sale includes an agreement for AGL to purchase the wind farm's electricity for the initial five years, with an option to extend for another five years.
The wind farm, which features 58 GE turbines, will produce about 780,000MWh of renewable energy per year, enough to power more than 137,000 Australian households.
Annually, the wind farm can also offset about 655,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
AGL managing director & CEO, Andy Vesey, said: “Building more renewables is a key commitment of our Greenhouse Gas Policy. Today’s announcement and our broader strategy of setting up the PARF to enable investment is a tangible demonstration of this.
“Reaching financial close on the Silverton wind farm is a major milestone for PARF. Silverton is the first new renewable project build offered to the Fund, following the sale of AGL’s already developed solar plants at Nyngan and Broken Hill in November 2016."
PARF aims to develop a 1W portfolio in Australia through large scale renewable energy projects.
AGL has provided AU$200m ($151m) in equity funding to PARF, while QIC on behalf of its clients Future Fund and the QIC Global Infrastructure Fund have provided AU$800m ($604m).
AGL will develop and manage about 1GW of large-scale renewable energy infrastructure assets and projects, on behalf of PARF. This is about 20% of the estimated 5GW of new renewable generation capacity required by the Australian Government’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) planned to be met by 2020.
Image: AGL Energy sells 200MW Silverton wind farm in Australia to PARF. Photo: Courtesy of dan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
