A 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) that Eskom was supposed to have signed with Redstone Solar Thermal Power Project (South Africa) has been postponed until further notice. According to Eskom, the postponement is purely on conditions precedent not being met.
The agreement would have seen Eskom buy 100 MW from the project for an estimated ZAR50 billion (US$3.6 billion) for the duration of the contract.
The total project investment is estimated at R8 billion (US$691.8 million).
The Redstone Solar Thermal Power project will be located in Postmasburg, near Kimberley in the Northern Cape Province, adjacent to the 75 MW Lesedi and 96 MW Jasper photovoltaic (PV) solar power projects successfully developed by SolarReserve and its investment partners. Together, the three projects comprise the world's first combined CSP and PV solar park with a total of 271 MW of generating capacity.
In early July we reported that SolarReserve and Saudi ACWA Power will break ground for the project in September. The financial close of the project was reached in October of 2015 with OPIC providing US$400 million of debt financing.