Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG) has revealed plans to launch a new offshore wind business – Corio Generation – set to kick off in next month with a project pipeline of more than 15 GW.
Macquarie says Corio will take projects from origination through development and construction, and into operations.
Corio will apply a long-term partnership approach to the creation and management of projects, underpinned by access to long-term capital sourced both within Macquarie and from third parties.
It will build on GIG’s existing portfolio – which includes previously announced projects in the UK, Europe, Taiwan, Korea, and Australia.
UK: already a GIG economy
More than 50% of the United Kingdom’s current 10.4GW offshore wind capacity is already supported by Macquarie.
The business will also seek new opportunities to create world-class offshore wind assets that support local economies while meeting the energy needs of communities and corporate off-takers – sustainably and responsibly.
Corico will be led by Jonathan Cole who boasts more than a decade as the head of Spanish giant Iberdrola’s offshore wind business.
“He has a track record of developing a major international pipeline of offshore wind projects, and was previously responsible for the development, construction and operation of over 30 GW of projects in Europe, the Americas and Asia,” GIG said.
South Australia’s renewable energy transition
The Australian Market Operator (AEMO) recently reported that in 2021 renewable energy generation exceeded total demand for the state just about every second day (180 days) last year, peaking at 135% of total demand in November.
According to the AEMO data, last year wind and solar accounted for 63.4 per cent of total generation within the states. Another 0.7 per cent came from battery storage, much of that charged up by renewables. Fossil fuels, in this case gas, fell to just 35.7 per cent.
With the construction of a new transmission link to NSW via the $2.3 billion Project EnergyConnect and the Port August Renewable Energy Park – the largest hybrid wind and solar project in the country set to join the grid soon, these numbers will surely increase again.
The Port Augusta Renewable Energy Park will comprise of 50 wind turbines and 250,000 solar modules together with associated infrastructure, to produce a total installed capacity of almost 320 megawatts (MW) of clean renewable energy