U.S. Private Equity To Fund $400M For Concentrating Solar Power In SA

Written by Dana Sanchez

Sep 20, 2015

From SeeNews. Story by Ivan Shumkov.

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has cleared new financing of up to $400 million for U.S.-based SolarReserve’s 100-megawatt Redstone concentrating solar power project in South Africa.

OPIC is the U.S. government’s development finance institution. It mobilizes private capital to help solve critical development challenges and, in doing so, tries to advance U.S. foreign policy.

California-based SolarReserve and Saudi co-sponsor and lead developer ACWA Power will use an OPIC investment guarantee to help build and operate the solar thermal power plant in South Africa’s Northern Cape province, an OPIC press release says.

At the beginning of 2014, the South African Department of Energy selected the Redstone project as part of the country’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme’s third round. You can read more about that here.

Redstone will use a tower configuration, similar to SolarReserve’s 110-megawatt Crescent Dunes solar thermal power plant in the U.S. state of Nevada.

Up to $400 million in funds for the concentrating solar power project are part of $1 billion-plus in financing and support for U.S.-led developments in Africa and Asia, OPIC announced Thursday.

Funds include $250 million for power generation and infrastructure projects in OPIC-eligible countries in sub-Saharan Africa and a further $250 million for a power grid upgrade in Pakistan.