Epuron has completed the sale of the Rye Park Wind Farm project to Trustpower Limited (NZ) via its subsidiary Rye Park Renewable Energy Pty Ltd.

Trustpower is a significant New Zealand-based electricity utility and recently announced the opening of its 90-turbine Snowtown 2 wind farm in South Australia, and is well placed to continue to expand its wind farm business in Australia. Trustpower brings considerable financial strength and experience to the development and construction of the project which it has been involved with since 2012.

This is excellent news for the Rye Park Wind Farm and brings it one step closer towards construction. The sale is consistent with Epuron’s role as a project developer and Trustpower’s longer term role in the development, construction and operation of renewable energy projects.

The Rye Park Wind Farm is located north east of Yass in the Southern Tablelands region of NSW. The wind farm project is seeking development approval for up to 126 wind turbines and associated infrastructure. The Rye Park Wind Farm will provide the following benefits:

• Production of more than 1,192,000 MWh of electricity per year – sufficient for the average consumption of around 149,000 homesⁱ;
• Improvements to the security of electricity supply through diversification of generation sources and locations;
• Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 1,153,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per annumⁱ;
• Contribution to the NSW and Australian Governments’ target of providing a minimum of 20% of consumed energy of renewable sources by 2020;
• The creation of up to 363 direct employment jobs in the region during the construction phase and up to 34 permanent jobs for the life of the project; and
• An injection of up to $1,708 million into the Australian economy through the inclusion of flow on effects and multipliers.

Rye Park Renewable Energy Pty Ltd is now responsible for the future development of the project, and will be assisted by Epuron in relation to land negotiations and the development application.

EPURON acknowledges the strong support of the involved landowners, local community and the NSW Government for the project to date, and looks forward to working together with Trustpower to ensure a smooth handover and a continuation of engagement with community stakeholders.