RES doubles Australian services business with acquisition of Blueshore

RES has acquired Australian renewable asset management business Blueshore for an undisclosed sum, the UK-headquartered renewable energy company said Feb. 7.

With 1.6 GW of wind and solar assets under management, Blueshore was comparable in size to RES Support Services' own portfolio in Australia, RES' CEO of support services Marco Perona told S&P Global Platts.

"We have a strong grid team in Australia for our own development and construction business, but that same team can provide services to other customers and we're already advising on market strategy optimization," he said.

Australian states all had "very aggressive targets for renewables and net zero by 2050 -- so the potential is huge and the country has fantastic solar and wind resource," Perona said.

Among Blueshore's assets is the Royalla Solar Farm south of Canberra, the first utility-scale solar farm to connect to Australia's National Electricity Market in 2014.

RES has a development portfolio of more than 4.7 GW in Australia and an asset management portfolio of more than 1.5 GW, excluding the Blueshore assets.

In August last year it announced plans for the Watta Wella renewable energy hub near Stawell in western Victoria.

The facility is to include a 315 MW wind farm, a 62.5 MW solar farm and a 400 MW/1,200 MWh storage battery.

Building services

Following the Eur727 million sale of its development and construction business in France to Hanwha last year, RES has been undergoing some internal reorganization, Perona told Platts.

One of its goals was to build out support services in preparation for significant growth, he said.

In addition to asset management, RES would look to expand its service offering, "advising on electricity prices, grid connections, insurance operations, ESG and Health Safety Quality and Environment reporting," he said.

"We start from a good base supporting 7.5 GW of assets globally, now we want to extend our geographical reach, as well as look at new segments," he said.

In Europe, for instance, RES was active in Norway and Sweden, so looking at Finland could make sense. It operated assets in France, so looking at Spain and Italy also made sense, he said.

"These are priority markets in terms of timing. Then we want to grow significantly in Germany, where we already have a development and construction presence," he said.

Extra one percent

The challenges of ageing plant, market volatility and merchant exposure were all driving the need for support services, Perona said.

Low wind speeds in 2021 were an example. "In the past RES has been certified as delivering one percent more availability than the average in the market. That can be significant over a 25-year investment period," he said.

Platts assessed the GB onshore wind capture price at GBP174.83/MWh ($237/MWh) Feb. 2, up over 220% year on year.

RES has also been advising on routes to market, with 1.5 GW of corporate power purchase agreements procured globally to date.

"This is one area I want to expand. We have the expertise for our own development but we're keen to help customers work out market strategies too," he said.