Press Releases

Baar-Zug, Switzerland, 26 June 2015

Partners Group, the global private markets investment manager, has invested into the development of Ararat Wind Farm in Australia on behalf of its clients. Partners Group is the largest shareholder in the 240MW project, which also counts Renewable Energy Systems (RES), General Electric, and OPTrust, a Canadian pension fund, as investors. The project was originally developed by RES and has a total cost of AUD 450 million.

Ararat Wind Farm is a new-build wind farm located to the west of Melbourne, in the Australian state of Victoria. Construction on the site will commence immediately, with completion scheduled for mid-2017. Once completed, the wind farm's 75 turbines will have a combined capacity of 240MW, making it Australia's third largest wind farm and generating enough energy to power 123'000 homes on average per year. In February 2015, the project was awarded a 20-year Feed-in Tariff by the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government for a significant portion of the wind farm's total output.

Benjamin Haan, Managing Director and Head of Private Infrastructure Asia-Pacific at Partners Group, will join the Board of Ararat Wind Farm. He states: "Ararat Wind Farm is a well-structured project with high-quality counterparties and a strong wind resource. The timing of our investment aligns with increased certainty around Australia's Renewable Energy Target, which will require a substantial build-out of renewables in the coming years. The wind farm will make a great contribution not only to the local community in Ararat, in the form of employment, education and investment, but also to the future of renewable energy in Australia."