Leading international infrastructure investor, John Laing, has today secured a 49.8% investment in the 112MW Granville Harbour Wind Farm in Tasmania, making the most of some of the best wind resources in Australia.

The project, which will comprise turbines to provide enough clean energy to power more than 45,000 homes, is in the early stages of construction and is expected to be fully operational in late 2019.

Located on 1,200 hectare working cattle farm on the west coast of Tasmania at Granville Harbour, the acquisition forms part of John Laing’s growing renewable energy portfolio in the region. It complements investments in the Finley Solar Farm (NSW) and Sunraysia Solar Farm (NSW) both announced earlier this month, and Kiata Wind Farm (VIC) and all three stages of the Hornsdale Wind Farm (SA).

Justin Bailey, John Laing, Regional Managing Director - Asia Pacific, said:

“We are very pleased to secure our first investment in Tasmania. It demonstrates our ongoing commitment to creating sustainable infrastructure for communities in which we operate. The investment is consistent with our strategy to create long term value through the successful delivery of greenfield infrastructure and further enhances the diversification of our renewable energy portfolio in the APAC region.”

The remaining 50.2% of equity funding will come from Palisade’s Renewable Energy Fund with lenders MUFG, ANZ and Westpac providing senior debt to the project. The Granville Harbour Wind Farm will benefit from a long-term renewable energy power purchase arrangement with Hydro Tasmania.

Global renewable energy provider Vestas will supply, commission and service the project, featuring 31 Vestas V126-3.6MW wind turbines. Construction of the 11km transmission line to connect Granville Harbour Wind Farm to the electricity grid is now underway and will be managed by TasNetworks.