25 March 2021

Octopus Australia and CEFC continue joint venture to develop the Blind Creek Solar and Battery Project together with the project founders

Octopus Australia and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) continue their landmark joint venture to work with the founders of the Blind Creek project to develop and deliver a utility scale agri-solar and battery project.

The project is uniquely positioned on a strong part of the existing transmission network near Bungendore, New South Wales, between the major load centres of Sydney and Canberra. With a capacity of over 300MWac solar and large scale storage, the project is aiming to make a significant contribution to the NSW energy transition without requiring major transmission works.

The project was founded by local farmers with a multi-generational connection to the site and to the local community, together with a team of renewable energy experts including technical support from Stride Renewables, NGH and Axcentium. The characteristics of the project reflect their vision to co-locate regenerative agriculture with solar, engage in genuine community consultation and include the community in the project’s financial benefits.

The founders are confident that, in Octopus and the CEFC, they have found a highly respected, socially conscious investment team whose values are exceptionally well aligned with their own. Octopus and CEFC investment and expertise will enable the project to move into the next stage of development and accelerate its ultimate delivery.

Founder and landowner Dominic Osborne said, “From the outset our goal was to co-locate renewable energy with regenerative agriculture and carbon sequestration while maintaining sheep production. We also had a clear vision of how we wanted to involve our local community in the Project. Our relationship with Octopus and the CEFC means our commitment to create a more sustainable future for our family farm and positive outcomes for our community has taken an exciting step forward.”

Sonia Teitel, Octopus Australia Co – Head of Investment and Development, said: “We are very excited as we see this as a huge opportunity in large scale storage in NSW as we grow our renewables portfolio and continue to support the NSW energy transition. We are delighted to work alongside the founders to turn their vision into reality.”

CEFC Executive Director, Monique Miller said: “The development at Blind Creek is a significant opportunity for solar and storage generation between two major load centres and in a state which will see some coal fired generation retiring in the short term, requiring significant new generation to support security and reliability. The CEFC is making a commitment of up to $5 million to the Blind Creek development, continuing our strategy of closely cooperating with landowners and maintaining existing regional farming activities in conjunction with clean energy generation. It’s great to be working with landowners and Octopus to develop this opportunity to construction phase in the coming years.”

About the CEFC

The CEFC has a unique mission to accelerate investment in Australia’s transition to net zero emissions. We invest to lead the market, operating with commercial rigour to address some of Australia’s toughest emissions challenges. We’re working with our co-investors across renewable energy generation and energy storage, as well as agriculture, infrastructure, property, transport and waste. Through the Advancing Hydrogen Fund, we’re supporting the growth of a clean, innovative, safe and competitive hydrogen industry. And as Australia’s largest dedicated cleantech investor, we continue to back cleantech entrepreneurs through the Clean Energy Innovation Fund. With $10 billion to invest on behalf of the Australian Government, we work to deliver a positive return for taxpayers across our portfolio.

About Octopus Australia

Octopus Investments Australia is a subsidiary of the Octopus Group. Founded in 2000, it is one of the world’s largest investors in clean energy with over $6 billion deployed across more than 300 projects. Octopus entered Australia in 2018 and is currently managing over $1billion of renewable assets domestically. Most notably, this includes being the owner of the 333MWdc Darlington Point Solar Farm, currently the largest solar farm generating into the National Electricity Market and also the 180MW Dulacca Wind Farm in QLD, which is currently under construction.