Baker McKenzie has successfully advised HD Renewable Energy Co. Ltd (HDRE), a renewable energy developer listed on the Taipei Exchange, on the acquisition of 111MW/330MWh BESS project in South Australia through ZEBRE, a joint venture platform established between HDRE and ZEN Energy earlier this year (ZEBRE Platform). Following the acquisition, the ZEBRE Platform now holds more than 1.4GW of generation and energy storage projects under construction and development in Australia.
The Templers BESS Project is currently being commissioned, and is expected to reach commercial operations in August 2025. Once completed, the project will become one of the largest operating BESS projects in South Australia, second only to Neoen Australia Blyth BESS, and is expected to store enough energy to power 96,000 homes for over 2.5 hours. More importantly, the Templers BESS Project has far-reaching benefits of deploying renewable energy, as well as stabilising the supply of renewable and affordable energy in South Australia.
Baker McKenzie’s Australian Head of Energy and lead partner on the transaction, Raymond Lou stated: “After assisting HDRE with the establishment of the ZEBRE Platform, we are grateful for the opportunity to work further with HDRE on the acquisition of a near-operational BESS project in South Australia. We continue to see increasing investor interest in energy storage projects in Australia, which is vital to stabilising our grid systems and ensuring that Australia is able to transition towards generating a higher percentage of its energy requirements from renewable sources.”
The core transaction team consisted of Raymond Lou, Lizzie Lu, Macy Jong, and William Tai, and was supported by the broader Projects team including Howard Fraser, Sarah Merrett, Melanie Harwood, Anna Vella, Kelsey Baird, William Eefting, Leandros Pandoulis, Gordon Tan, Andrew Vesperman and Vanessa Bourrilhon.