Overland Sun Farming and Island Green Power have announced the commencement of construction of three new solar projects near Mildura in Victoria.
At 100MW, they are the largest solar farms ever to be built in the state, and will have a total capacity of 320MW.
Overland managing director Brett Thomas said solar is Australia’s “next great energy opportunity”.
“We could see that Victoria’s North-West Region was a fantastic opportunity for solar farming – it has the best solar radiation in the state and there is plenty of clear flat land,” he said.
“Now that these projects have completed the planning process and executed grid connection agreements, we can move from talking about solar projects in North-West Victoria to building them.
“These projects are important to lead the deployment of large-scale solar in Victoria and to continue to move the energy market to clean technologies.
“Because of our confidence in solar, we have already invested millions of dollars in equipment to build these projects.”
Island Green Power managing director Ian Lawrie said the economic conditions were right for solar.
“As the input prices fall and future energy and LGC prices continue to remain high, the conditions are in place for investment,” Mr Lawrie said.
“The local governments in Mildura and Swan Hill have been extremely supportive of these projects, which will represent a $500 million investment in the region, and generate more than 200 jobs during construction.”
Beon Energy Solutions is working with the project to deliver various non-regulated electrical connections.
General manager Glen Thomson said Beon was proud to be associated with the construction of these projects in North-West Victoria.
“The region has an enviable solar resource and the progress and competitiveness of solar projects in the last twelve months has been tremendous,” Mr Thomson said.