Victorian solar farm reaches financial close thanks to superfund

Bison Energy Group, which has offices in Japan, Korea, Italy and Australia, announced it had reached financial close for its 7.5MW Cosgrove solar farm over the weekend, crediting the completion to an Australian super fund.

While the details of the agreement have not been made public, Bison Energy signalled that it plans to begin construction on the project in May.

The solar farm will be located just east of Shepparton in Victoria’s mid-north. The project site is approximately 15 hectares (150,000 m2) and has been leased by the company for 30 years.

Bison gained development approvals for the project from Victoria’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning in mid-March and has been granted a connection offer by electricity utility and distributor Powercor.

Bison owns the Cosgrove solar farm via its subsidiary Be Pro F. It said Bison will act as the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) as well as the operations and maintenance (O&M) contractor on the project.

It is slated for completion by the end of the year, if not sooner.

In addition to Cosgrove, Bison said it has another project in Victoria which has reached the “ready-to-build” stage and is targeting financial close before August. In total, the company owns a 60MW portfolio, including eight projects in Victoria and New South Wales in various development phases.