Our history

Pacific Hydro was founded in 1992 in Australia and since that time has developed an impressive range of hydro and wind projects in Asia Pacific and South America.

With a policy of not building any new dams, all our hydro projects have made use of either existing irrigation dams or run-of-water flows, while our wind projects have been sensitive to the existing farming environment and communities of our sites.

A series of small-scale hydro projects in Victoria, Australia were followed by our award-winning 30MW Ord River Hydro project in 1995. It was a development others had assessed, but failed to capitalise on, and an opportunity we seized upon to build on our experience and portfolio.

Our first international development got under way in 1997, when we signed a joint venture agreement with Aboitiz Equity Ventures for a 70MW hydro project on the Bakun River in the Philippines. The development, which is now 100% owned by Aboitiz Power Corporation, remains the largest infrastructure project ever built in the Philippines by an Australian company.

In 2001, we diversified into wind energy, the world’s fastest growing renewable energy source, with the completion of the Codrington Wind Farm, in southwest Victoria, Australia’s first privately developed wind farm.

In 2004, Pacific Hydro acquired the Coya and Pangal hydro plants in Chile’s VI Region, following a strategic move into South America in 2002. The acquisition was an attractive investment which allowed us to diversify our international hydro portfolio as well as complement our existing development activity in Chile.

Pacific Hydro was delisted from the Australian Stock Exchange in July 2005 when it was acquired by Industry Funds Management (Nominees) Ltd (“IFM”), as trustee of the IFM Australian Infrastructure Fund, providing us with the backing that enabled our exponential growth over the following years.

IFM is an investment management company specialising in the management of investment products across private equity, infrastructure, debt and listed equities portfolios, and is wholly owned, through Industry Super Holdings Pty Ltd, by a large number of Australian superannuation funds.

In 2005, we also broke into the world of carbon trading, negotiating the world’s first bank intermediated sale of carbon credits from our formerly owned Wainikasou and Nagado hydro projects in Fiji.

Our South American presence expanded in 2006 with our entry into the Brazilian market. Pacific Hydro was a pioneer in the wind energy market in Brazil through the construction of two of the country’s first wind farms – Millenium and Vale dos Ventos – on the northeast coast.

That year also saw our 155MW La Higuera hydro project in Chile become the largest project to receive registration under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), positioning us perfectly to play a major role in this growing new market.

In 2008, we launched Australia’s first full-service CDM consulting business with Australian engineering consulting firm SMEC, subsequently including Mitsui as a third shareholder. We also commenced construction of the 111MW Chacayes hydro project in Chile, our largest financial commitment to the South American energy market.

Pacific Hydro’s first South Australian project, the Clements Gap wind farm, was officially opened by South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, in 2010. This milestone year also saw Chilean President Sebastián Piñera unveiling our La Higuera and La Confluencia run-of-river power stations.

Our Chacayes run-of-river hydro plant in Chile was inaugurated on October 2011 by the country’s Minister for Energy, Rodrigo Álvarez, and we are now progressing with our global development projects that will see us powering a cleaner world into the future.