EDP Renewables has entered Australia without buying a single operating asset. Its first move is the purchase of ITP Development, a Canberra company with two decades of local experience and more than 2 GW of projects at various stages. The price was not disclosed. What EDPR bought, and what it chose not to buy, says a lot about how global developers now enter new markets.
Key takeaways
- EDP, through EDP Renewables, announced on 28 January 2024 that it had acquired ITP Development, a subsidiary of ITP Energised, marking EDP's expansion into the Australian market. The deal value has not been disclosed.
- ITP Development was established in 2003, is headquartered in Canberra and develops wind, solar and energy storage projects, and it now becomes part of EDPR APAC, the Asia-Pacific arm of EDP Renewables.
- The portfolio, recorded at 2,150 MW, includes a 1.5 GW pipeline of wind and solar projects in eastern Australia, mainly New South Wales and Queensland, with options to co-locate batteries, including seventeen 5 MW solar parks with 5 MWh of battery storage each.
- Its most advanced asset is the 450 MW, or 480 MWp, Merino Solar Farm with up to 200 MW of battery storage in Queensland, expected to be operational by 2026.
- Enerdatics records 22 corporate renewable energy transactions in Australia announced between January 2023 and June 2025, of which 14 carry a disclosed value; three development platform deals that can be priced per MW range from about $0.06 million to $0.19 million per MW once grossed up to 100 percent.
Why enter a new country by buying a developer?
Because development in Australia is local work that a newcomer cannot do from abroad. Connecting a project to the grid, negotiating with landholders, securing state and federal approvals and finding offtake all depend on relationships and knowledge that take years to build. ITP Development has been doing that since 2003. Buying it gives EDPR a working team and a set of projects already in the system on day one.
EDPR's stated plan is to combine ITP's local expertise with its own global scale, technical proficiency and energy management know-how. That division of labour is the logic of the deal. The local team knows where projects can be built and how to get them through the system. The global owner brings the balance sheet to build them and the procurement scale to build them cheaply.
The timing ties to policy. Leap's record links the projects to Australia's targets of 82 percent renewable power by 2030 and the full replacement of coal by 2040. A buyer that wants to take part in that build-out needs a pipeline in place before the rush, not after it.
What does 2,150 MW actually consist of?
Three distinct pieces, each at a different stage. The first is a 1.5 GW pipeline of wind and solar projects in eastern Australia at various stages of development, with options to add batteries alongside. The second is a set of seventeen small solar parks of 5 MW each, each paired with 5 MWh of battery storage. The third is the Merino project in Queensland: a 450 MW solar farm, rated at 480 MWp on its panels, with up to 200 MW of battery storage.
The 2,150 MW figure in Leap's record is the sum of the 1.5 GW pipeline, the 450 MW Merino solar farm and its 200 MW battery. That matters when comparing it with other deals, because only Merino is described as being in an advanced stage of development. A battery co-located with a solar farm can store midday output and release it into the evening peak, when solar generation falls away. In a market where midday prices are depressed by rooftop and utility solar, pairing the two is increasingly common, and both Merino and the small parks carry storage.
Queensland is also where other newcomers have gone. Enel Green Power Australia took a different route into the same state, buying QEM's Julia Creek hybrid project in Queensland for a small upfront payment plus milestone payments.
What do Australian development platforms sell for?
Enerdatics records 22 corporate renewable energy transactions in Australia announced between January 2023 and June 2025, and 14 of them carry a disclosed value. Three are development platforms that can be put on a per MW basis once grossed up to 100 percent. OX2 paid about $84.39 million for ESCO Pacific and its 1,420 MW in March 2023, about $0.06 million per MW. Brookfield paid $162 million for 75 percent of a 2 GW development platform in June 2024, about $0.11 million per MW for the whole. Frontier Energy paid $36.4 million for 80 percent of Waroona Energy's 241 MW in September 2023, about $0.19 million per MW. Applied to ITP Development's 2,150 MW, that range implies roughly $127 million to $406 million. That is a comparables calculation, not the price EDPR paid.
Gentari's $689 million purchase of WIRSOL Energy and its 1,187 MW in February 2023 sits well above that range at about $0.58 million per MW, and Origin Energy's acquisition of the 1,320 MW Walcha Energy in February 2024, three weeks after EDPR's deal, was not priced. Developer acquisitions in Australia are frequent, but their prices are disclosed only some of the time.
What does the deal signal for Australian renewables?
That global utilities see Australia as a market to build in rather than buy into. Within a month in early 2024, EDPR bought ITP Development, Origin bought Walcha Energy and Gaw Capital and BW Group set up Valent Energy, a battery developer with a 2 GW solar and battery portfolio. None of these is an operating portfolio purchase. Each is a bet on a development team.
The deals also show how storage has moved into the base case. Every element of ITP's portfolio either includes batteries or carries the option to add them. For a newcomer like EDPR, buying a pipeline already designed around co-located storage avoids having to redesign projects later. The contrast with Beijing Energy's attempt to buy five Australian solar farms from Lightsource bp, a deal that never closed, shows the other path into the market and its risks.
Frequently asked questions
What did EDPR pay for ITP Development? The deal value has not been disclosed. Baker McKenzie acted as legal adviser to EDP Renewables.
What is the Merino Solar Farm? A 450 MW solar project in Queensland, rated at 480 MWp, with up to 200 MW of battery storage. It is the most advanced project in ITP Development's portfolio and is expected to be operational by 2026.
Where are ITP Development's projects located? Mainly in eastern Australia, particularly New South Wales and Queensland, including a 1.5 GW pipeline of wind and solar projects and seventeen 5 MW solar parks with battery storage.
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