Construction begins on new Victoria solar farm as Esco finds a buyer

Construction has begun on what will be the 11th large scale solar farm in Victoria, after developer Esco Pacific announced it has agreed to the sale of the 125MW (dc) Glenrowan solar farm to construction and engineering giant Cimic Group.

Esco says one Cimic subsidiary, Pacific Partnerships, will take ownership of the project, while another Cimic subsidiary, UGL, has started early construction works and expects to complete the solar farm by the end of 2023.

Esco will retain a long term asset management contract for the solar farm located in northern Victoria, and says it has now successfully developed and delivered seven solar projects totalling more than 800MW to the Australian market, with another 2,000MW in the pipeline.

“Achieving this milestone on our Glenrowan Solar Farm is a fantastic outcome for Esco Pacific, bringing our developed project capacity to 820MWp of utility scale solar in Australia and cementing our position as one of the leading developers in the market,” managing director Steven Rademaker, said in a statement.

“Our team has shown that we can continue to develop and deliver high quality assets to market, while working with a new Australian solar equity investor.

“We are delighted to have delivered this shovel ready project to Pacific Partnerships, and we welcome the commencement of construction activities.”

Rademaker told RenewEconomy there has already been a marked upturn in interest since the election of the Labor government just over a week ago.

The Glenrowan solar farm is expected to generate more than 260GWh a year and will create 150 full time construction jobs.

Network company Ausnet says Glenrowan will be the third solar farm in the Glenrowan area, along with the Glenrowan West (pictured above) and Winton solar farms. It is located around 2km south-west of the town of the same name.

AusNet will build approximately 5km of new 33kV grid connection assets from the solar farm to the Glenrowan Terminal Station. AusNet will also install a new 120MVA transformer at the terminal station. Detailed design work is currently underway, with construction expected to commence later this year.

See also: Large Scale Solar Farm Map of Australia