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Last week Australian wind farm project developer Greenleaf Renewables announced a partnership with renewable energy arm of Canadian investment giant Brookfield. Together the pair plans to develop, build, own and operate the proposed Moonlight Range Wind Farm in central Queensland, and they will also work together on developing future renewable projects along Australia’s east coast focussing on wind and energy storage projects. This includes Greenleaf’s project pipeline of more than 600MW, which is in addition to the company’s publicly announced projects. AltEnergy contacted the directors of Greenleaf Renewables, Chris Righetti and Tim Gregson to find out more about Greenleaf, the partnership with Brookfield Renewable and their pipeline of proposed projects.

Q: How long has Greenleaf Renewables been operating in Australia, and what projects do you have under development that you can tell us about?

 A: Greenleaf has been operating since mid 2021. Our first project, and the most advanced, is the Stony Creek Wind Farm located in the North Burnett Region of Queensland, which recently achieved Queensland State Development Approval. We have secured a partner on that project, who at this stage remains confidential.

Our second project is the Moonlight Range Wind Farm in central Queensland, which is also under development – about 12 months behind Stony Creek – and is now under partnership with Brookfield Renewable. In addition to these projects, we have approximately 600 MW of early stage wind projects in Queensland, and are investigating further opportunities in NSW and Queensland.

Q: Moonlight Range Wind Farm recently attracted Brookfield Renewable as a partner. What are the main features of this project and at what stage of development is it?

A: Firstly, Moonlight Range has a strong wind resource with a diurnal night-time wind profile that has already been demonstrated despite only being in the early stages of our wind monitoring campaign. On top of that it has multiple onsite HV (275kV) connection options, large landholdings in a sparsely populated area, is relatively close to existing port infrastructure at Gladstone, and has a supportive regional council stakeholder in the Rockhampton Regional Council. Overall, the project is in an attractive location in the Queensland market with future electrification of heavy industry loads expected and continued coal retirements.

Q: What roles will Greenleaf and Brookfield play in terms of the day to day development activities involved in getting a project like Moonlight Range Wind Farm up and running?

A: Greenleaf is the developer and we will continue to manage the responsibility of getting this project approved, as well as all other early/mid stage development activities such as landholder engagement, cultural heritage and broader stakeholder engagement, management of the wind monitoring campaign, and upfront engineering & design. Brookfield will manage the grid connection process and taking the project to FID including procurement, offtake and finance.

Having complementary skill sets is a key aspect of all our partnering efforts. We see Brookfield as a high quality team to work with, being like-minded and with strong experience and relationships in the renewable energy development space.

Q: Can you give us some insight into how a relatively small developer in the Australian industry attracted a global giant in Brookfield?

A: The two Directors of Greenleaf Renewables, Tim Gregson & Chris Righetti, have been involved in the wind and broader renewables industry for more than a decade each. We have built a large network of contacts throughout the industry and have engaged with and harnessed that network very carefully since establishing Greenleaf.

As for the deal process itself, in November 2022 we ran a non-binding indicative offer process with a select number of parties who were invited to bid for the right to partner on our Stony Creek and Moonlight Range projects. Given the current market there was quite a bit of interest, and one of these parties was Brookfield Renewable. By Christmas we were under exclusivity with a party on Stony Creek, and soon after we entered exclusivity with Brookfield on Moonlight Range.

Q: The partnership with Brookfield must have given you confidence with your business model. How do you see the Australian renewable energy market performing going forward, and can you see any major issues affecting it?

A: It does, and not just that Brookfield has partnered with us, but the level of interest from the ‘partnering market’ in what companies like ours are doing is incredible. Greenleaf is an experienced and dedicated development team, and the nature and size of our business means that we can be nimble, and move with the sort of speed that is required in greenfield development. Chris and Tim run the business day to day, and working closely with our pivotal Manager of Development Django Tricker, we are the decision makers. We have now partnered with two separate companies on our first two projects – in addition to the overall strategic partnership with Brookfield – so this is certainly validation of the business model and the Greenleaf team. To have achieved what we have in less than two years is wonderful to see, and we do ensure that on occasions we pause to reflect and then keep moving forward. With a small team, it’s important to have these ‘check ins’ to reflect, learn, celebrate the wins, and keep driving outcomes.  In the end we’re here to deliver projects through to construction, not just secure a partner!

As for the Australian market, it is in a really interesting phase right now. There is a huge level of activity, it is extremely competitive to secure project sites and those sites are becoming more complex to take through the development lifecycle. It’s really difficult to build a high-quality in-house local development team in a short amount of time, so many of the large international players are starting well behind the eight ball in securing a development project pipeline. In recent years, major developers with large pipelines have been scooped up by big players. Some recent examples to highlight this include partnerships between Westwind and Shell, Epuron and  Ark Energy, CWP and Squadron Energy, and Wirsol – Petronas via the Gentari business unit. Of the remaining ‘true developers’ – of which there are few with long term experience – many are already partnered up or have established relationships in the market.

Meanwhile, Australia continues to see major players coming here from global markets with great appetite to invest, and it seems almost weekly we are seeing credible players popping up, seeking renewable energy projects. Overall, we think the demand is there to deploy the capital; we think we have a role to play to develop good quality projects, in good time; and we know that the market will encounter bottle-necks around key workstreams in the late stage and project delivery, so the fact is we just need to get on with it. That’s one of the key reasons why Greenleaf chooses to partner early. We avoid delays by partnering early, and making key project decisions together with our partner can mitigate the surprises which could pop up later in the process and create issues.

Q: What are your own professional backgrounds in the renewable energy industry?

A: Chris Righetti – Director: Started my renewables career in 2009 at NewEn Australia, a small family-owned developer and subsidiary of a German renewable energy development company. We developed Mortons Land Wind Farm which was sold to Goldwind, as well as Salt Creek Wind Farm and Dundonnell Wind Farm before selling the portfolio under development to TrustPower. I followed the projects to TrustPower, which became Tilt Renewables through a demerger of the business. At Tilt we built Salt Creek and Dundonnell wind farms in 2017 & 2018, in addition to growing a large renewables pipeline throughout Australia. At that stage I wanted a change and went to RWE, which is where I met Tim, and soon after that Django as well. I was at RWE for three years, trying to acquire development projects from people like Greenleaf Renewables. After some time we developed the idea of establishing our own business, raised the capital required, and started Greenleaf Renewables.

Tim Gregson – Director: Following five years in the finance and consulting industries, I started in the energy and renewables industry in 2013 at Energy Developments Limited. Coober Pedy hybrid project was the first renewables project I worked on; a project focused on reducing diesel fuel burn by installing wind and solar. Since then I have worked across all facets of the renewables development industry up to financial close/construction commencement; from front-end development such as site identification and landholder workstreams, through to procurement, offtake and project financing. For example, I worked on the Kiata Wind Farm, which was successful in the first Victorian LGC certificate scheme.

Our team at Greenleaf brings a balanced mix of development, commercial and finance skill sets, which has proven to be a solid foundation for our business model and the development pipeline.

Pictured is a photo montage of  the Moonlight Range Wind farm.