Abengoa receives Provisional Acceptance Certificate for Khi Solar One, the first solar thermal tower plant on the African continent

Abengoa, the international company that applies innovative technology solutions for sustainability in the energy and environment sectors, has received the “Provisional Acceptance Certificate” for Khi Solar One. Therefore, the 50 MW solar thermal tower plant is officially handed over to Khi Solar One Pty. Ltd, a corporation that is made up of Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) -one of the largest financial development institutions in South Africa-, Khi Community Trust and Abengoa. In addition to developing, constructing and being in charge of the plant’s operation and maintenance, Abengoa also owns 51 % of the project, while IDC owns 29 %, and Khi Community Trust controls the remaining 20 %.

Khi Solar One has become the very first plant in the history of Africa to have completed over 24 consecutive hours of operation with solar power successfully. This project is a public-private partnership awarded by the Department of Energy of South Africa and serves clean and reliable electricity to Eskom, South Africa’s power utility, under a 20-year power purchase agreement. Furthermore, in South Africa, Abengoa, IDC and Kaxu Community Trust have completed their first year of operation for Kaxu Solar One: the 100 MW parabolic trough plant which is the country’s first solar thermal plant. Alongside this facility Abengoa, IDC and KaXu Community Trust are currently developing another 100 MW parabolic trough plant: Xina Solar One that is scheduled to start operations in 2017.