Financing closed for 800 MW of world’s cheapest solar
Investors in Qatar’s 800-MW Al Kharsaah photovoltaic (PV) project have reached financial close with Japanese banks to build what is said to be the world’s cheapest solar power production set-up of its kind.
Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) said Thursday that the project vehicle, Siraj-1 Company, had secured senior loans from Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd and completed all financial arrangements.
Details on the financing have not been made public, but the project will be built at a total cost of QAR 1.7 billion (USD 467m/EUR 403m), Kahramaa said.
Kahramaa, the transmission and distribution system owner and operator for the electricity and water sector in Qatar, is the off-taker and part owner of the future plant through Siraj Energy. The latter owns 60% in Siraj-1 Company, while the remaining 40% stake is held by a consortium of Japan’s Marubeni Corp (TYO:8002) and France’s Total Solar International.
Marubeni and Total secured the project in Kahramaa’s tender for design, construction, financing and operation of the Al Kharsaah plant.
The consortium submitted a bid of QAR 0.0636/kWh, the lowest among the selected. At the time of the signing of the power purchase agreement (PPA) in January this year, the project’s levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) dropped to QAR 0.0571/kWh based on financial market indices, Kahramaa then said.
After the financial close, the plant’s LCOE was set at QAR 0.05281/kWh, or USD 0.01449/kWh, which the Qatari utilities company said is “the lowest price in the world for these types of projects”.
The solar park will be constructed on a 10-square-kilometre (3.86 sq miles) plot in the Al Kharsaah area located west of Doha. The first phase will connect 350 MW to the grid in the second quarter of 2021, while commercial operation of the full capacity is planned for the first quarter of 2022.
After 25 years of operation, the Al Kharsaah park will be transferred to Kahramaa as part of the build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) arrangement.
(QAR 1.0 = USD 0.275/EUR 0.237)
Source: renewablesnow
