Cerro Dominador, a Chilean company owned by investment funds managed by EIG Global Energy Partners (EIG), has secured $758m financing for the proposed concentrated solar power plant (CSP) to be built in the Atacama desert, in Chile.
Image: A concentrated solar power plant. Photo: courtesy of Cerro Dominador.
The financing has been subscribed by a group of international financial institutions and the contribution of local banks.
These financial entities comprises Natixis, Deutsche Bank, Société Générale, ABN AMRO, Santander, Commerzbank and BTG Pactual as well as other institutional investors in a tranche parallel to the bank financing.
Cerro Dominador will use the funds to build the 210MW Cerro Dominador solar project, located in Maria Elena, near Calama, in the Antofagasta Region, an area with one of the highest solar radiation in the world.
The plant will have capacity to supply clean, reliable energy to the national interconnected system in Chile. Most of its power output will be sold under 15-year power purchase agreements awarded at the end of 2014.
Cerro Dominador CEO Fernando González said: “This is another significant milestone in our plan to build the first CSP project in Latin America. Chile has one of the best locations to harness solar energy and this technology is ideally placed to bring solutions to the country by providing clean, reliable power operating 24 hours a day.”
The new plant will be equipped to produce clean energy, replacing the expected emissions of 640,000 tons of CO2 per year. It will provide renewable baseload energy to the Chilean Electricity System.
Cerro Dominador said that the new construction phase is expected generate more than 1,000 jobs at the peak during the next two years.
The firm said that the new plant will contribute to the Chile Energy Agenda, which aims to diversify the country’s matrix by increasing renewable energy share.
EIG acquired controlling stake in the project, which was developed by Spanish group Abengoa, in 2016.