FRV lands major solar power agreement: Australia’s leading solar developer and renewable energy platform Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) — a part of Saudi Arabia’s Abdul Latif Jameel Energy and Canadian asset management company OMERS — has secured three new solar sites in New Zealand under a JV with the country’s electricity generation company Genesis Energy, according to a statement.

What we know: The solar farms — developed in New Zealand’s Manawatu, Waikato, and Hawke’s Bay — will have a capacity of 200 MW, 100 MW, and 100 MW respectively. Their capacity will be sufficient to power c. 85k homes annually, about the size of the country's capital Wellington. They will also remove c. 500k tons annually of greenhouse gas emitted from fossil fuel generation.

It’s been an eventful year: FRV Australia and Genesis agreed to acquire the 52 MW Lauriston solar farm earlier this year. It is expected to start generating electricity in 2024.

The JV is moving in the right direction: The latest agreement brings the combined generation of the four sites secured this year to 452 MW, bringing the JV closer to achieving targets set in 2021 of securing up to 500 MW of solar projects in New Zealand within five years.