Investec Corporate and Institutional Banking and Nedbank Capital have announced the financial closure of a 74MW Solar PV power plant in the Northern Cape, South africa.

Investec and Nedbank Capital acted as joint mandated lead arrangers, for R1.8 billion of senior debt with the primary shareholders being Acciona Energy South Africa (Pty) Ltd (51%) and Aveng Africa (29%).

The project:

The project consists of the construction and operation of a solar PV facility with a total net contracted capacity of 74MW. The facility will be constructed on a 620 hectare site 17km north-west of the town of Kathu, an area known as one of the best irradiation sites globally and will use 319 600 crystalline solar panels. The full generation capacity of the plant will be sold to Eskom under a 20 year Power Purchase Agreement.

The project is one of three in which Investec and one of five in which Nedbank Capital have been involved in as mandated lead arrangers during the second round of Government's Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement's  programme.

The project will be 'ring-fenced' in a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), Windfall 59 Properties (RF) (Pty) Ltd. Along with Acciona and Aveng, the Dibeng Trust, established with a local community shareholding will acquire a 10% shareholding at financial close. Further benefiting from the transaction will be the non-profit organisation, Soul City, with a 10% shareholding.

Source: Investec