Eskom secures R1,3 billion loan for solar power plant

13 November 2013 News

Eskom has secured an agreement from French development agency Agence Française de Développement (AFD) for a R1,3 billion loan to finance the construction of a 100 MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant near Upington in the Northern Cape.

CSP comprises a family of technologies that concentrate the sun’s energy through large mirrors and utilise that concentrated thermal energy to produce steam to drive a conventional steam turbine for electricity generation. The technologies are similar to conventional power plants in that steam is used to power a turbine and generator, but the fossil fuel combustion is replaced with free, non-polluting solar energy.

This CSP project is expected to deliver an annual energy production of 525 GWh and will be sufficient to power 200 000 homes. The AFD is co-financing the CSP plant together with the African Development Bank, Clean Technology Fund (CTF), European Investment Bank (EIB), KfW (a public law institution existing under the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany) and the World Bank.

In 2011 Eskom and AFD signed a 100 million Euro loan facility for the financing of the Sere wind farm near Vredendal in the Western Cape.

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