The Ayala Group’s energy unit, AC Energy Corp. (ACEN), has secured funding to develop renewable projects in Australia that are in its pipeline.
In a disclosure, ACEN said that, as a guarantor to ACEN Australia Pty Ltd., it executed a common provisions agreement and a facility agreement between ACEN Australia and DBS Bank Ltd.’s Australia branch for a 100 million Australian dollars (about P3.9 billion) in long term revolving green loan facility.
This is part of ACEN’s goal of raising more than AU$600 million to support the development of its projects in Australia.
DBS was the sole arranger and sustainability adviser for the green loan facility which, according to ACEN, will provide capital financing for its eligible green assets in Australia, the first within the Ayala group.
“Having pledged to achieve net zero financed emissions by 2050, DBS is also committed [to] supporting like-minded clients like ACEN in the long haul to enhance Asia’s renewable energy mix to realize a low carbon economy,” Kelvin Wong, managing director and deputy head of energy, renewables and infrastructure at DBS, said.
“The initial green loan facility with DBS will help advance our fund raising capacity of over 600 million Australian dollars to develop and construct existing and additional pipeline of renewable energy projects in Australia,” said ACEN Australia CEO Anton Rohner.
“We are committed to growing ACEN’s renewables platform backed by our vision to reach 20 gigawatts (GW) of renewables by 2030. ACEN is leading the charge with the decarbonization opportunities across Asia and the Pacific,” ACEN International COO Patrice Clausse said.
Currently, the listed firm is developing the 720-megawatt New England Solar Farm. It is being built across two solar fields about six kilometers east of Uralla in New South Wales.
The first phase of this solar project, with a capacity of 520 MW, is slated for completion in 2023.
“Once the entire 720 MW project is complete, it will produce around 1,800,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of clean electricity each year – enough to power about 250,000 New South Wales homes,” ACEN said earlier.
ACEN is undertaking the 50-MW, one hour battery energy storage system (BESS) adjacent to its solar farm in New South Wales which, according to the company, will address “the intermittency of renewable energy.” It is backed by a AU$12.5-million state government grant.
The company has lined up 18 GW of projects to be built across the region. At present, it has about 4,000 MW of attributable capacity in the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, India and Australia.