Name and Location
Xina Solar One parabolic trough plant project, Northern Cape, South Africa.

Client
Abengoa (40%), with the balance of the project being held by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), the Public Investment Corporation and the KaXu Community Trust.

Project Description
The project involves the development of a 100 MW parabolic trough plant, with a five-hour thermal energy storage system using molten salts. This project will form the largest solar complex in Africa together with Abengoa’s plant KaXu Solar One project that is currently under construction in the country.

Parabolic trough technology employs parabolic-shaped mirrors that are set on a structure so that they can track the movement of the sun and concentrate solar radiation onto a receiving tube. Inside the tube, a heat-absorbing fluid flows and reaches high temperatures. This fluid transfers the thermal energy to a heat exchanger that heats water into steam, which ultimately drives a turbine to generate electricity.

The plant also uses thermal energy storage technology that, with a set of thermal storage tanks filled with molten salts, enables the plant to generate electricity after the sun sets or during transitory cloudy periods, in addition to being able to adapt energy production to the peaks of demand.

Xina Solar One will produce clean energy equivalent to that needed to power an estimated 90 000 households, thus preventing the emission of 315 000 t/y of carbon dioxide.

The construction, operation and maintenance of the plant will stimulate regional socioeconomic development by creating numerous direct and indirect jobs, as well as a supply chain that will foster economic growth.

The project has been selected as one of 17 preferred bidders in the third round of the Department of Energy’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP).

Value
The total investment in the Xina project is expected to be $880-million.

Duration
Xina Solar One’s construction is expected to begin in 2014.

Latest Developments
Abengoa has announced that $660-million in project financing has been secured for the Xina Solar One project.

The $660-million non-recourse project financing agreements combine funding from development financial institutions, such as the African Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the IDC and the Development Bank of Southern Africa, with local investment banks such as Absa, Nedbank and Rand Merchant Bank, according to Abengoa.

A 20-year power purchase agreement has been signed with Eskom after the selection of Xina as a preferred project during the third bidding round under South Africa’s REIPPPP.

Abengoa says the location of Xina alongside KaXu, the first CSP plant to enter commercial operation in South Africa, will form the “largest solar platform in sub-Saharan Africa”.
Key Contracts and Suppliers
Abeinsa (construction).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Abengoa communications department, Patricia Malo de Molina Meléndez, tel +34 954 93 71 11 or
email communication@abengoa.com.
Abeinsa, tel +34 954 93 70 00 or email abeinsa@abengoa.com.