Affirmative action

As the energy industry transitions into a renewable future, masters of the required technology have emerged to light the way. Turnkey solutions have been a boon to power providers and consumers alike, and many of the businesses providing them have earned a place in tomorrow’s energy sector.

In 2004, Mark Yates was a Riverland-based sole trader working in the high-voltage construction sector. Much of his work centered around utility-scale projects for tier-one clients. As the number of solar and wind projects grew, Yates formed YES (Yates Electrical Services) Group to meet the challenge.

“We’ve built our team in the sector to work on numerous projects all across the national electricity market in Australia, ranging from PV battery and wind projects,” he tells The CEO Magazine.

“I’ve always had confidence in the team we’ve built over time and their ability to deliver. The missing piece for YES was having access to the capital to really demonstrate our capability.”

Rapid growth

In 2020, YES Group undertook its first capital raise to create a portfolio of sub-five megawatt solar farm projects in South Australia. Helping this cause was the Group’s newly formed relationship with PATRIZIA Infrastructure, the global infrastructure funds management business of PATRIZIA AG.

PATRIZIA Infrastructure’s initial commitment to the development of these assets was via its managed-vehicle Sustainable Energy Infrastructure, which is backed by several Australian superannuation funds. Subsequently in 2023, PATRIZIA Infrastructure and Mitsui Group took a direct equity interest in YES Group via their jointly managed APAC Sustainable Infrastructure Fund (ASIF) alongside Yates, and together they are committed to growing a diversified and vertically integrated energy platform across Australia.

“That’s our core focus at the moment. We’ve now deployed more than a dozen projects for our third-party clients and are focusing on the long-term growth of the YES Group platform supported by ASIF, with four strategic projects under construction and over a dozen more battery storage and solar farms identified so far,” Yates says.

“We are uniquely positioned as one of the only vertically integrated, full-capability energy platforms in the small-medium-sized renewable energy sector.”

The difference to times past is that, following the ASIF investment, YES Group is no longer simply building then maintaining these sites.

“We’re actually owning, operating and maintaining the assets. It’s a boom model we’re working with now,” he says.

A third-generation businessman, Yates says business is in his blood. “Retail wasn’t for me, though,” he reveals.

“Once commencing in the electrical sector, I diversified from being just a man in a van to growing a vertically integrated business that operates in many different aspects within the national electricity market and the electrical construction sector.”

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“It has been a pleasure collaborating with YES Group over the past two years, and we’re honored to be its preferred solar PV panel supplier. The team’s professionalism and proactive problem-solving consistently exceed our expectations. For anyone seeking a reliable and trustworthy partner in their solar projects, YES Group is the perfect choice.” – Shanti Jia, Key Account Manager, LONGi Solar Australia

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Yates’ father, who runs a menswear business in the Riverland region of South Australia, provided a strong work ethic but was muted in his support for YES Group.

“I was always motivated to create something much better, so he’d stop heckling me,” Yates says with a laugh.

And he’s done so. YES Group is growing rapidly. “We have a team of around 70 staff now, so we’re into the large business category,” he says.

“As we’ve diversified, we’ve created brands to help articulate our offering to the market. We have Yes HV, which is high voltage, so substation- and utility-grid scale and renewable development connections. We also have YES Solar, which covers anything from residential to large commercial rooftop PV and battery systems.”

Transition process

Also under the YES Group umbrella are YES Energy, a licensed electricity retailer, and Redmud Green Energy, which develops ground-mount solar farms.

“We do the design, procurement and construction and then operate and maintain the asset,” Yates says. “Beyond that, YES Energy allows us to sell the energy from our assets directly to end consumers of energy.”

In just a few years, the organization has gone from building 0.4-hectare solar farms around the Riverland region to building multiple eight-hectare sites concurrently across South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria. Trusted partners, such as LONGi Solar, have helped make this happen.

“They’re triple-A rated, tier-one module manufacturers,” he explains. “They’re always coming out with innovative products, and we’ve enjoyed working with them for many years now.”

With South Australia leading the way in the uptake of renewables, Yates believes YES Group is well-positioned for further growth in the right direction.

“We want to explore projects potentially greater than five megawatts – that’s a key goal for us,” he says.

Given the speed at which renewables are gaining traction in Australia, it’s a reality on the horizon.

“Ultimately, the combination of renewables and storage will be the lowest-cost energy in the future. The transition is a process, but the pace of renewables take-up is unbelievable.”