Solarion Investment has launched an investment fund to enable investors to access medium-scale solar assets. The Solarion Renewable Fund will be the first in Australia to focus exclusively on medium-scale solar assets.
The fund is targeting five-year average yields of 4-6% per annum (net of all fees and expenses) and a final distribution of 5% at the end of the target investment term, the investment manager says.
Solarion executive director Graham Pearson notes: “Medium-scale solar projects have historically been overlooked as investors gravitated towards large-scale solar projects. But with those larger projects now facing considerable risks – particularly in relation to grid connection, capacity constraints, commissioning delays and large decreases in marginal loss factors – medium-scale solar projects have become attractive as they avoid many of these pitfalls plus they are quick to develop and construct, highly scalable, and still generate strong economies of scale.”
Solarion was among the first to develop and construct medium-scale solar assets in Australia. The fund will initially include five projects that are each 5MW in size and located in South Australia.
Every medium-scale asset included in the fund will power approximately 2,885 households for a year and save an estimated 11.5 million kilograms of CO2 emissions each year compared to the equivalent coal generation.
Solarion chief executive officer Lasman Citra says the company aims to grow the portfolio to over 200MW in the next few years. “The Solarion Renewable Fund is our way of offering investors the ability to make a change by combining an investment for a financial return with a positive contribution to local communities and the environment,” he adds.