IFN's Smithfield purchase is looking more astute by the...

IFN's Smithfield purchase is looking more astute by the day.

Today's AFR:

Activity in new wind and solar power projects ‘‘won’t be quite as frenetic as it has been but there are other areas and subsectors that are coming through,’’ said Michael Siede, executive director at ICA Partners. He still pointed to expectations of another eight to 10 new renewables projects to reach financial close and start construction this year, plus an active secondary market for clean energy generation assets.

Investor interest is also increasing in energy storage while investments are also needed in the grid to smoothly manage the influx of renewables.

“We don’t see any real driver for them to (invest in nuclear) at this point in time,” he said, adding that solar and wind plus gas peaking generation appeared to present a much cheaper option than nuclear to solve supply in peak periods.

The team most recently advised AGL Energy on its acquisition of Perth Energy, and helped RATCH-Australia to buy into Alinta’s Yandin wind farm in Western Australia. Visy’s sale of the Smithfield gas power plant to Infigen Energy and UBS’s sale of the Collgar wind farm to REST Industry Super also feature among its transactions in the past few months.

The bankers said that future new firm power sources needed to be sufficiently flexible to dial up or down in response to wind and solar generation, which would increasingly result in periods of low or zero prices on the wholesale market.

That is what will drive the black coal plants in NSW and Queensland out of the market, likely before their rated lifespan, said Aaron Simcock, who heads up ICA Partners alongside Mr Siede and another former RBS investment banker Greg Arandt, and ex-UBS dealmaker Mr Craib.

https://www.copyright link/companies/energy/ironstone-sees-coal-power-demise-fuelling-clean-investment-20190816-p52hv2

Ash here.

The coal generators won't be driven out by price, but by intermittent, fluctuating renewables making a mockery of 'baseload' concepts. And the player who can store generation when prices are low plus 'firm' variable renewables is going to make a motza selling into the wild peaks.

This player is IFN. A battery on Capitol is a no-brainer, though the order queue at the battery manufacturers is very long.

BUY

Ash