(Bloomberg) — Abengoa SA, an energy and environment
company based in Spain, closed $660 million in project financing
for a solar power plant in South Africa.
The financing is for a 100-megawatt solar thermal plant it
plans to build in Northern Cape Province. The Xina Solar One
facility will cost $880 million in total and generate enough
electricity for at least 95,000 homes, Abengoa said.
Institutions including the African Development Bank and
Development Bank of South Africa as well as local investment
banks including Nedbank Group Ltd. took part in the non-recourse
financing agreement. The Xina project will supply electricity to
Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., South Africa’s power utility, under a
20-year power-purchase agreement.
Abengoa, which also converts biomass into biofuels and
produces drinking water from seawater, will own 40 percent and
South Africa’s Industrial Development Corp., Public Investment
Corp. and KaXu Community Trust the rest, according to the
statement. South Africa aims to install as much as 17,800
megawatts of clean energy by 2030 to reduce its reliance on
fossil fuels.
The project, located close to Pofadder, will be built next
to Abengoa’s KaXu Solar One plant that’s also 100 megawatts. The
plant will include a thermal energy-storage system to help
balance peaks between supply and demand.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Louise Downing in London at
ldowning4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
Randall Hackley, Tony Barrett