France Signs Loan to Back Eskom's $136 Million CSP Project in South Africa

Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--A number of power and manufacturing accords were signed during French President Francois Hollande's state visit to South Africa last week. Among these was an agreement for France to back a $136 million loan to the country's state-owned power utility Eskom (Johannesburg) for a 100-megawatt (MW) concentrating solar power (CSP) plant, to be constructed near the town of Upington, in the Northern Cape province.

The African Development Bank (AfDB), Clean Technology Fund, European Investment Bank (EIB), KfW (Germany) and the World Bank are the co-financiers of the project, on which Eskom and Agence Francaise de Development (AFD) will sign off.

When fully operational, the Upington CSP plant will generate 516 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity annually, enough to power about 200,000 homes.

Eskom CEO Brian Dames said that the project was one of Eskom's first commercial-scale renewable energy projects outside its existing hydropower portfolio. Dames said that it puts the utility on a path toward reducing its carbon footprint and investing in a sustainable energy future.

In 2011, AFD signed a $130 million loan facility with Eskom for the Sere windfarm, near Vredendal in the Western Cape.

For related information, see May 23, 2013, article - Eskom Moves into Wind Power with Plans for 100 Megawatt Sere Windfarm.

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