Abengoa, Capital Riesgo Global to develop US solar plant

Abengoa and Capital Riesgo Global, a subsidiary of Banco Santander will collaborate for the development of Solana, a 280MW concentrating solar power plant being built in Arizona, US.

Capital Riesgo Global will invest $125m to have an equity share in the project estimated to cost $2,000m.

Abengoa secured a about $1.45bn federal loan guarantee in 2010 from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Federal Loan Guarantee Program to finance the project.

The investment approved by the US DOE and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, has reduced Abengoa’s own capital requirement contribution.

Abengoa said it will be the US first concentrating solar power project with an ability to store energy.

The plant’s thermal inertia and storage technology allows it to produce dispatchable electricity throughout the day, averting intermittency.

The plant is expected to be operational by 2013 and will generate sufficient energy to power 70,000 households and will prevent the emission of 475,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum.

The company has more than 1GW solar capacity under construction across the world and has a total of 543MW in operation.

Currently, Abengoa has more than 1GW of solar capacity under construction around the world.