MPC to Double Capacity of New Solar Plant by Next Year
MPC Caribbean Clean Energy Limited and its partners plan to double the power generating capacity at its solar plant in Dominican Republic, a new asset for which the acquisition deal is expected to close by next quarter.
The Monte Plata solar plant will grow its capacity from 34 Megawatts to 74 MW by 2022, a project that MPC told the Financial Gleaner would be financed by Dutch and German development finance institutions FMO and DEG, without disclosing the cost of the expansion.
MPC Caribbean partnered with Ansa McAL of Trinidad & Tobago and two other unnamed investors from Dominican Republic and Canada on the Monte Plata acquisition. The price paid to the seller of the plant, United Renewable Energy Company Limited of Taiwan, was also not disclosed.
“The purchase price is confidential as agreed between buyers and sellers,” said MPC, which made the acquisition through the MPC Caribbean Clean Energy Fund. The fund will “indirectly” hold shareholding of some 36 per cent in the solar asset, MPC said.
United Renewable Energy has said Monte Plata I, comprising 34 MW, can generate more than US$7 million in gross revenue annually.
“It will not only create electricity revenue of US$7.4 million per year, but also cut greenhouse gas emissions for more than 35,729 tons of carbon dioxide per year,” United Renewable said in 2018 when it acquired loans of US$38 million FMO and DEG to finance the plant’s construction.
MPC says Monte Plata currently sells all of its generated power under a 20-year power purchase agreement to the state-owned Dominican Corporation of State Electrical Companies.
Its operational capacity is estimated at 33.4 MW, “which is set to be extended to approximately 74 MW by 2022”, MPC said in a market filing. Over the course of its operational lifespan, the expanded solar park will help avoid the production of nearly million tons of carbon dioxide, the energy company added.
With the acquisition, MPC Caribbean Clean Energy Fund will hold operational solar and wind assets in Jamaica, Costa Rica, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.
Source: jamaica
