Bright Acre Energy – Solar IPO, 2019 Plans

European solar project developer Wirsol Energy have an Australian arm known as Bright Acre Energy. The company has been working on a $500m IPO of their Aussie solar portfolio, but news is thin on the ground lately. Let’s take a look at what to expect from BAE in 2019.

Bright Acre Energy $500m Australian Solar IPO

Bright Acre Energy Gannawarra Solar Farm
Bright Acre Energy Gannawarra Solar Farm (source: brightacreenergy.com.au)

Bright Acre Energy have ten projects in various stages of completion, situated in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. According to the Australian Financial Review, the projects are set to fully connect to the national power grid by the end of 2019. These five projects will total over 1100MW, which is enough electricity to power 350,000+ houses. The official site names the farms as currently having 397MWp of nameplate capacity, with half of this commercially operational and the other half ‘almost there’. 

Former Australian rugby union player Bill Calcraft was the CEO last year, and along with Gerard Dover the site has them listed as ‘Proposed Management’ – so not sure what this means for 2019 – and there hasn’t been any specific news on their potential IPO. We’ve reached out to the team and will keep you updated if we find out anything about Bright Acre’s plans for the rest of the year. 

Bright Acre Energy are currently responsible for the following projects, as per their website:

  • Hamilton Solar Farm (Collinsville, QLD) (Operational) (69MWp)
  • Whitsunday Solar Farm (Collinsville, QLD) (Operational) (69MWp)
  • Clermont Solar Farm (Clermont, QLD) (Near-term Operational) (89MWp)
  • Springdale Solar Farm (Springdale, NSW) (Pipeline) (120MWp)
  • Bomen Solar Farm (Bomen, NSW) (Pipeline) (120MWp)
  • Hay Solar Farm (Hay, NSW) (Pipeline) (140 MWp)
  • Buronga Energy Station (Buronga, NSW) (Pipeline) (400MWp)
  • Wemen Solar Farm aka Wemen Sun Farm (Wemen, NSW) (Near-term Operational) (110MWp)
  • Gannawarra Energy Storage System (Kerang, VIC) (25MW/50MWh)
  • Gannawarra Solar Farm (Kerang, VIC) (60MWp)

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The ClearVue integrated clear glass solar panel.

We’ve written about ClearVue solar glass a couple of times already this year – the Perth based company has had a successful IPO and has some great tech behind it. On Wednesday they announced the development of a frame-independent Insulated Glass Unit which will house the ClearVue integrated clear glass solar panel.

The ClearVue integrated clear glass solar panel.

The ClearVue integrated clear glass solar panel
The ClearVue integrated clear glass solar panel (source: CleearVuePV.com)

A press release on the ClearVue website has given an indication of what we can expect from this company – they’ve developed these IGU’s which means there will be more licensing opportunities, as the clients ‘no longer need to rely upon ClearVue proprietary window frame designs and can instead utilise industry standard frames’ – meaning it’ll be far easier to get the tech into more homes, office buildings, boats, or even caravans. 

This represents a fairly significant shift in tech for the company who previously built the PV cells around the inside of the window frame – where it’s now captured within the IGU glass module itself – making it far easier to apply their BIPV integrated clear glass solar panel. 

ClearVue Executive Chairman Victor Rosenberg said in the press release that the new IGU units will open up their ability to sell more units and include them in wider ranges of usage:

“The move away from dependency upon any specific frame design to an industry standard IGU that can be supplied to innumerate framing companies and window fabricators will significantly increase ClearVue’s potential to reach a global market faster. This simple step has widened our scope for even greater licensing opportunities”

The IGU units will be used in early trial sites in, amongst other places, Mirreco’s micro-homes. In other news, their window and glass curtain wall solutions continue to progress and are expected to be completed on schedule. We can’t wait to see what’s next for this and for solar windows! One of my favourite pieces of solar tech.

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ClearVue solar glass IPO – $5m

The ClearVue solar glass IPO has been a success, with the Perth based company debuting on the ASX after raising $5m AUD via an IPO. They now plan to float on the national stock market in March, if everything goes to plan with regards to their solar windows

We’ve previously written about the ClearVue IPO – back in March they lodged with ASIC to offer 25 million shares at $0.20 to raise the $5m AUD (although RenewEconomy are reporting they were hoping to raise $6m). It’a fantastic to see them reach this amount and take the business to the next step.

ClearVue solar glass

ClearVue Solar Glass and Windows
ClearVue Solar Glass and Windows (source: clearvuepv.com)

The patented ClearVue nano-technology was developed together with the Electron Science Research Institute (ESRI) at Edith Cowan University. Their BIPV (building-integrated photovoltaic) product generates a minimum of 30W per square metre of clear glass, whilst simultaneously insulating from heat and cold. They’re hoping to boost this 30W per square metre to 50W on the back of the upgraded funding.

ClearVue’s executive chairman Victor Rosenberg hasn’t been quoted since the success of the IPO but here he is a couple of months ago discussing their product:

“Our technology presents a paradigm shift in the way glass will be used in building construction, automobiles, agriculture and speciality products,” Rosenberg said.

“Glass will no longer be just a component of construction but also a renewable energy resource.”  

You can see the ClearVue panels used in places like bus shelters where they power LED lights and a digital bus display. No doubt we’ll see commercial scale production of the solar glass next. This will be offered to the agricultural and greenhouse sectors, as well as in building and construction.

In a world where it’s mandatory to have new solar panels on houses built in California, it’s certainly far from out of the picture to see solar glass installed in new buildings.

If you’ve like to learn more, click here to watch a video on ClearVue from their website.

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New Energy Solar raising funds for IPO.

American based sustainable investment fund New Energy Solar is hoping to raise up to $300m as they prepare to float on the ASX. Applications for the Retail Offer are expected to open this Friday – their prospectus and product disclosure statement was lodged with ASIC last Thursday and anyone looking to invest in the company should start doing their due diligence!

About New Energy Solar

New Energy Solar, established in 2015 and run by John Martin, is an unlisted investment fund that invests in large-scale, cashflow-positive solar power stations. According to the Australian Financial Review, they then sign fixed-price and escalating PPA (purchase power agreements) with customers which are generally for 13-15 years. After the PPA terms expire the plants can re-contract with their customers or sign a new contract with someone else.

The company website notes that they have already generated 189,000MWh of electricity in Q1 and Q2 of 2017 – this represents 105,000 tonnes of displaced CO2 emissions – equivalent to pulling 50,000 cars off the road and powering 44,500 homes. 

New Energy Solar currently has four solar power stations on their books and they hope to use funds raised by the ASX IPO to buy more plants in the United States and also expand into buying solar plants in Australia. 

Their current projects include:

  • North Carolina 43MW Project
  • North Carolina 47MW Project
  • Stanford 67.4MW Project
  • TID 67.4MW Project

A media release said that they are also in binding contracts to purchase 14 more American solar plants, with a total output of 130MW. This will bring New Energy Solar’s total holdings to “a diversified 345MW portfolio of large scale solar power plants underpinned by highly creditworthy off-takers and a weighted average PPA term of 16.4 years”.

John Martin, New Energy Solar CEO was quoted as saying “These high-quality projects and the proposed PPAs with creditworthy off-takers greatly increase our scale as an investor in solar and also enhance the diversity of our portfolio.”

The exact timing of the New Energy Solar IPO is as yet unknown and will depend on how successful it is in the opening stages – we’ll update this article with some progress as soon as we hear any more. It’s exciting to see more private solar investment in Australia and we’ll follow New Energy closely over the coming weeks and months. 

Click here to view their website about the IPO and download the offer document. 

New Energy Solar ASX IPO
New Energy Solar ASX IPO (source: newenergysolar.com.au)

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