Ashurst advises City of Adelaide on renewable power purchase arrangements 

Ashurst acted for the City of Adelaide in respect of negotiating long term arrangements for the purchase of renewable electricity to meet the demand of the City of Adelaide's operations, including buildings, sporting and community facilities and street lights.

The arrangements will ensure that the City of Adelaide's operations are now powered by renewable electricity, sourced from both solar and wind generation, including the existing 56.7 MW Clement’s Gap wind farm in South Australia.     

For the City of Adelaide, in addition to achieving the vision set out within its Strategic Plan 2016-2020 by reducing the carbon emissions associated with the operation of its assets, the key drivers for the transaction were to:

• Reduce electricity and environmental compliance cost of operational assets under management;
• Increase long-term budget certainty;
• Achieve the City of Adelaide’s sustainability objectives; and
• Support renewable energy development in South Australia.

The Ashurst team was led by infrastructure and projects partner Dan Brown, who commented: "We are delighted to act for the City of Adelaide on what is a market-making transaction for the purchase of renewable electricity from an innovative renewable energy company.  The City of Adelaide transaction comes after the City of Sydney recently announced in October 2019 that it had struck a similar deal with Flow Power to power all of the council's operations with 100 per cent renewable electricity. We expect that more Australian councils will look to enter into similar arrangements in the near future."

Dan was assisted by senior associates Dale Gill and Emily Tuffley.