(3 minutes read)
· ENGIE of South Africa has reached an agreement to acquire from Abengoa a 40% equity stake in Xina Solar One, a 100 MW Concentrated Solar plan
· It will also acquire 46% of the Operations & Maintenance Company
· Xina Solar One is supplying solar energy to close to 100,000 households of South Africa
ENGIE of South Africa has reached an agreement to acquire from Abengoa a 40% equity stake in Xina Solar One, a 100 MW Concentrated Solar plan. It will also acquire 46% of the Operations & Maintenance Company. Xina Solar One is supplying solar energy to close to 100,000 households of South Africa. Its plant is located in the Northern Cape of South Africa, closer to ENGIE’s 100 MW Kathu CSP plant. Xina’s plant is equipped with parabolic trough technology and a molten salt storage system that can store energy for 5.5 hours of energy storage to provide reliable electricity during peak demand.
The acquisition would expand ENGIE’s renewable footprint to become one of the leading Independent Power Producers in the country and enhance the operational efficiency of both plants. The acquisition helps ENGIE to augment its capacity to reach 1,320 MW of installed capacity. Shareholders of Xina Solar One include Public Investment Corporation, a pension fund manager, Industrial Development Corporation, a development finance institution wholly- owned by the South African Government (20%); and Xina Community Trust, funded by the IDC (20%) and a private investor, who has 20% shares. Xina Solar One, which started commercial operation in August 2017, was built by Abengoa.
The merger is subjected to clearance from the concerned authorities including the competition commission. ENGIE has other interests including a CSP plant (100 MW Kathu), a wind farm (94 MW Aurora), 2 solar photovoltaic plants (21 MW) and 2 thermal power peaking plants (670 MW Avon and 335 MW Dedisa).
