Engie has completed the acquisition of Abengoa’s indirect stake in the 100MW Xina Solar One concentrated solar power (CSP) lant in South Africa.
Engie will now hold a 40% equity stake in Xina Solar One, as well as a 46% of Xina Operations & Maintenance Company.
The Xina Solar One plant, located at Pofadder in the Northern Cape, uses parabolic trough technology to generate renewable, sustainable and dispatchable power from the sun.
It also includes a thermal energy storage system that uses molten salts to store the necessary energy for a further five and a half hours of supply, helping to meet South Africa’s peak demand.
Xina Solar One, which started commercial operation in August 2017, is one of the country’s first solar thermal power plants designed with thermal storage.
With this acquisition, Engie will have a total installed capacity of 1320MW in South Africa.
Co-shareholders in Xina Solar One include the Public Investment Corporation, a pension fund manager and a shareholder on Engie’s Kathu solar thermal project (20%), Industrial Development Corporation, a development finance institution wholly-owned by the South African Government (20%), and Xina Community Trust, funded by the IDC (20%).