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Johannesburg - The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) has announced that it signed with the European Investment Bank (EIB) a R1.4bn finance contract to support the development of the !Ka Xu 100 MW concentrated solar power project in the Northern Cape.
"The South African energy sector is faced with a number of challenges and as the DBSA, we are encouraged by the EIB’s trust and confidence towards our investment strategy in supporting South Africas power generation infrastructure to improve the security of energy supply and optimise the energy mix which is much needed to accelerate the economic growth of South Africa," the DBSA said on Wednesday.
Once fully developed the !Ka Xu concentrated solar thermal plant will collect solar energy using parabolic trough technology and convert it into electricity in the steam cycle.
Through a built-in molten salt storage system or the thermal energy storage (TES), the plant will have capacity to store energy during off peak hours and dispatch it during peak hours.
"Like all other transactions appraised for funding, this project was subjected to the bank’s environmental appraisal guidelines to ascertain its impact on the environment," the DBSA said.
The DBSA is confident that this investment in the renewable energy programme will have positive contribution towards efforts to minimise adverse impact of energy generation on the environment and in particular on climate change.
