OPIC Partners with SolarReserve and ACWA Power to Develop Landmark South African Solar Energy Facility
October 20, 2015
(OPIC)
WASHINGTON –As part of Secretary John Kerry’s
Climate
and Clean Energy Investment Forum, the
Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)
today signed an agreement with U.S. based
energy developer SolarReserve
and Saudi Arabia-based ACWA
Power, recognizing OPIC’s $400 million
commitment of debt financing to support the
development of the Redstone Concentrating Solar
Power (CSP) project in Northern Cape, South
Africa.
The Redstone project is a 100 megawatt (MW)
clean energy facility that will be connected to
the South African national grid. Using
SolarReserve’s cutting-edge CSP technology,
Redstone’s molten salt storage capability will
deliver consistent baseload electricity, even
after the sun sets. This is a critical
development in a country where frequent power
outages have been cited as an obstacle to
economic growth.
OPIC support to the Redstone project is also a
significant milestone for President Obama’s
Power Africa initiative, of which OPIC is a key
contributor. Power Africa aims to bring new
power access to the more than 600 million
sub-Saharan Africans currently living without
energy access.
“The development of the Redstone project will
benefit the South African people, the
international clean energy sector, and the role
of U.S. leadership in emerging market
development,” said Elizabeth Littlefield,
OPIC’s President and CEO. “It’s impressive that
Redstone brings together the innovative U.S.
private sector leadership and technology of
SolarReserve, the international experience of
ACWA Power, and large-scale catalytic financing
from OPIC. This sort of change-making
partnership is at the heart of President
Obama’s Power Africa initiative and creates
broad, lasting impact in international
development.”
“The Redstone project marks an important
technology advancement for Africa in clean,
renewable power, and a demonstration of U.S.
developed technology that is leading the world
in large scale solar energy storage,” said
SolarReserve’s CEO Kevin Smith. “In addition,
the project’s delivered electricity price is
the lowest of any CSP project in the country to
date,” Smith added. “We appreciate OPIC’s
support and look forward to working with our
partner ACWA Power and the communities where
the project is located to help South Africa at
a time when it critically needs new generation
to support growth of its economy.”
“The Redstone CSP Project, ACWA Power’s 2nd
project in South Africa, delivers dispatchable
power at the most competitive tariff offered in
its Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer
Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) program to date
for CSP technology, while maximizing value
retention in not only the South African
economy, but also within the local economy in
the project vicinity. Quite apart from the
socio-economic contribution this project will
make to South Africa, the first time deployment
of CSP Tower technology in the country using a
project finance framework, which was made
possible by the galvanizing leadership of OPIC
financing, will enable this very important
clean energy technology to be deployed at scale
and at a faster pace than otherwise would have
been possible,” said Paddy Padmanathan,
President and CEO of ACWA Power.
OPIC’s financing to the Redstone project helps
fulfill both the U.S. commitment to clean
energy in the developing world as well as South
Africa’s own goals through their Renewable
Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement
Programme (REIPPPP), which aims to add 3,725 MW
of clean power to South Africa’s energy
generation mix.
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