SUSI Acquires 50% Of Starling Energy

• SUSI Partners acquires 50% interest in Australian clean energy company Starling
• SUSI makes this acquisition through SETF, which is the company's flagship equity fund
• SETF commits to providing additional capital for the rollout of more than 10,000 systems over the coming years
• This commitment to ensure that customers face no upfront costs, in turn increasing the demand and deployment of the systems

Fund manager SUSI Partners has acquired 50% interest in Australian clean energy company Starling Energy Group, which is specialised in delivering integrated solar and storage systems to residential energy consumers through its Plico Energy business.

Swiss based SUSI has made this acquisition through SETF, which is the company's flagship equity fund, that focuses on investing in sustainable energy infrastructure with a focus on OECD countries.

As part of this acquisition, SETF commits to providing additional capital for the rollout of more than 10,000 distributed solar and storage systems over the coming years, underscoring SUSI's firm belief in the benefits of a decentralised energy system.

This commitment will ensure that customers face no upfront costs, which in turn will significantly increase the demand and accelerate the deployment of the systems, according to he company. As against a contracted monthly payment, customers will be able to reduce their energy costs and carbon footprint from day one, it added.

Once sufficient scale is reached, individual systems can be operated as a virtual power plant (VPP), which uses use cloud-based software to optimise consumption and dispatch patterns of multiple distributed energy systems, according to SUSI. VPP can provide grid services and feed surplus electricity to the transmission grid for further upside potential.

Already in 2019, SUSI had announced to invest AUD 50 million ($34 million) in a solar and storage project of Starling (see Swiss Fund Manager For Australian PV+Storage Project).