‘We have to crack on’: Forrest lands $4bn deal in rush for green power

Billionaire Andrew Forrest has sealed the biggest acquisition in the history of Australia’s clean energy industry, expanding his reach into wind, solar and battery farms across the eastern seaboard by buying CWP Renewables for more than $4 billion.

Squadron Energy, part of the Forrest family’s private company Tattarang Group, said it had agreed to buy CWP from Swiss-based private equity investor Partners Group, beating rival bids from Spanish utilities giant Iberdrola and Australia’s Tilt Renewables. Other prospective purchasers had also included Origin Energy and a Canadian pension fund.

CWP has 1.1 gigawatts of wind farms operating or in late-stage construction across Victoria and NSW. The acquisition brings Squadron Energy’s portfolio of operating renewable energy assets to 2.4 gigawatts, making it the largest clean energy owner in Australia.

Forrest, the founder of iron ore miner Fortescue and Australia’s richest man, on Wednesday said Squadron was “superbly positioned” to ensure Australia could accelerate the development of renewable energy at the scale and pace required. The Albanese government has set targets to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent, and for the east-coast grid to source 82 per cent of its power from renewable sources, by 2030.

“The critical mass this gives us now across NSW, Victoria, and the entire east coast is absolutely essential to help us drive Australia’s clean energy transition,” Forrest said in an interview. “It gives the organisations, together, the collective power to get on with providing the green energy which Australia needs at the pace that the market wants it.”

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Forrest said his goal was for Squadron to grow even further, to become not just the largest green energy company but the “largest energy company, which is green”.

“We need the largest energy companies in the world to be green,” he said. “We need at least half a dozen companies the scale of Saudi Aramco [the largest oil producer in the world] to be fully green for humanity to have a chance of arresting global warming … we just have to crack on with it.”

CWP’s assets include the Sapphire Wind Farm in NSW, which has 75 turbines generating up to 270 megawatts; the Murra Warra wind farms with a combined 435 megawatts, and Crudine Ridge, which has 37 wind turbines and generates 142 megawatts. The company’s projects provide power to clients including Transurban, Woolworths, Sydney Airport and Snowy Hydro. CWP has up to 20 gigawatts of future projects in development Australia-wide, it said.