CleanPeak Energy, a renewable energy company developing solar, battery, and thermal energy projects, acquired five new solar projects located across New South Wales from Fortitude Renewables, a private equity investment firm.
Each acquired project has a development approval and connection agreement for a 5 MW solar and battery energy storage system. Together, these new solar and battery projects will contribute an additional 25 MW of solar and 100 MWh of storage capacity to CleanPeak’s existing portfolio.
Of the five projects, CleanPeak Energy has completed the acquisition of four projects at Ashley, Gunnedah, Dubbo, and Culcairn. An additional project at Warialda is likely to be completed upon completion of development approval.
The projects are expected to begin construction in 2026 and are expected to be operational by early 2027. Once commissioned, the projects are estimated to generate 90 GWh of clean energy annually.
Philip Graham, CEO of CleanPeak Energy, said, “The acquisition of the Fortitude portfolio allows us to accelerate the delivery of green energy to our portfolio of contracted customers. This transaction is another example of our company moving quickly to capitalize on high-quality assets that fit well within our portfolio.”
The completed projects will underwrite several new customer contracts, including the Harris project and NAB, which together constitute approximately 80 GWh of energy that CleanPeak has committed to deliver.
The acquisition will be funded via shareholder equity commitments and is the first acquisition since the company announced a partnership with KKR. CleanPeak Energy has signed a definitive agreement with KKR, a global investment firm, under which funds managed by KKR commit A$500 million (~$328 million) in funding. This funding is expected to support the growth and development of a pipeline of distributed solar, battery storage, and microgrid solutions for Australia’s commercial and industrial sector.
In 2025, approximately 37.4 GW of solar projects were acquired compared to 37.7 GW the previous year, according to Mercom’s recently released Annual and Q4 2025 Solar Funding and M&A report.
