“We are very proud of our A$2.8 billion renewables portfolio, which we have been working really hard to build,” says Louise Hatton, CommBank’s executive director, responsible lending. “There’s a big presence offshore and our local business has also grown a lot in the last 12 months.”

CommBank has been able to find local renewables-lending opportunities despite ongoing policy uncertainty in Australia, which has been a challenge for many in the industry.

Hatton adds: “We have been actively supporting the domestic renewables market when we can find the opportunities, but there are also a lot of assets we lend to in Europe, North America and Canada. Wind and solar projects are the main sources of growth both domestically and offshore.”

Among CommBank’s Australian projects is the Sapphire Wind Farm in the New England tablelands, near the Great Dividing Range. Sapphire Wind Farm is New South Wales’s largest wind farm and will power 100,000 homes from 75 wind turbines when complete in mid-2018.

On the solar front, innovation is at the fore in projects like Sundrop Farms (Sundrop). CommBank is a financing partner to Sundrop’s large-scale solar farm, seawater desalination plant and greenhouse operations in Port Augusta, South Australia.

The “Sundrop system” is a unique proprietary technology using concentrated solar power to create the heat, electricity and desalinated water needed to feed and power Sundrop’s growing horticulture operations.

The solution addresses the fresh-water scarcity issues typical of arid regions, like Port Augusta, and uses renewable energy instead of fossil fuels to produce water and energy.

The investment allows Sundrop to scale up its existing operations in Port Augusta by financing a 20-hectare greenhouse facility that will produce more than 15,000 tonnes of vegetables annually for markets across Australia.

The project was the first large-scale commercial farm of its kind. It is also the first integrated, sustainable-energy and water system of this type in the world.

Hatton comments: “This really was the first of its kind in Australia and globally. In addition to being a neat and interesting way to use solar to desalinate water and run a greenhouse, the project-financing model that sits behind this innovative renewable technology was the first of its type.”

She adds: “Our role is to ensure we can help the market for renewable energy grow in a sustainable way as we transition to a low-carbon economy. This means actively looking for renewable projects to finance that are sound deals in their own right. Innovative projects like Sundrop support local economies and social development, in addition to paving a way for the renewables industry to grow through the deployment of innovative financing techniques.”