The 100MW Kathu Solar Park project, located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, has achieved financial close. Mott MacDonald is lenders’ technical advisor1 on the scheme, which achieved preferred bidder status in Round 3.5 of the Government of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement (REIPPP) programme.
Kathu Solar Park is a concentrated solar power (CSP) project which will utilise parabolic trough technology with 4.5 hours of thermal energy storage. It has been developed by a consortium led by ENGIE and further sponsored by SIOC Community Development Trust, Investec bank, Lereko Metier, Public Investment Corporation and the Kathu Local Community Trust. Once complete, it will provide electricity to 80,000 homes across South Africa and will avoid the emission of 300,000 t CO2 per year.
As well as providing much needed power capacity to the grid system, the project will also open up new job opportunities for the local community. Over 1,200 jobs will be created at the peak of construction, while a further 70 permanent roles will be made available during the operational phase. Kathu Solar Park is due to be connected to the grid by the end of 2018. It will then supply clean and dispatchable electricity to Eskom, the South African power utility, under a 20-year power purchase agreement.
Mott MacDonald completed technical, environmental and contract due dilligence during the project’s financing stage, which played a key role in the scheme attaining preferred bidder status and subsequently reaching financial close. The consultancy will now monitor construction and operations in an ongoing role.
Stavros Tassos, Mott MacDonald’s solar team leader, said: “Our role on this successful project provides further evidence of our world-class capability in the CSP sector. We have ongoing roles in all seven of the CSP projects that have been awarded under the REIPPP programme to date and we look forward to the continuing development of the sector in South Africa.”
About Mott MacDonald
Mott MacDonald (www.mottmac.com) is a £1.4BN global management, engineering and development firm. It is one of the world’s largest employee-owned companies, with 16,000 employees and over 180 offices delivering sustainable outcomes for clients in 150 countries worldwide. It works on projects in the transportation, buildings, power, oil and gas, water and wastewater, environment, education, health, international development and digital infrastructure sectors.
