In a poll conducted during the CSP Today’s ‘Secure Project Financing in South Africa’ webinar, over 200 participants were asked to share their views on the biggest challenge faced by projects between bid submission and financial close. 43% decided that agreeing on commercial terms with a large syndicate of banks on the deal was the main challenge.

According to the CSP Today Global Tracker, parabolic trough has over 2750 MW in operation worldwide compared to the 103 MW in operation from tower. During the webinar, Nicolas Tucker, consultant at Investec’s Power and Infrastructure Finance, underlined that the “reality is, if banks are required to choose between a parabolic trough and a tower project, banks will be more comfortable supporting a trough project as it’s a more mature technology”.

South African company, Emvelo, and Spanish developer, Abengoa – who already have two plants in South Africa under construction – must now meet financial deadlines no later than 30 July 2014. It’s important that these two parabolic trough projects reach financial close and that there are no delays for international credibility, to sustain investor confidence in South Africa’s renewable program, and to avoid unnecessary additional costs for the Independent Power Producers.

The proceedings of the webinar can be viewed in full at no cost, by following the link below: http://goo.gl/OVXVuf

This exclusive webinar was organized in conjunction with CSP Today South Africa 2014, taking place in Cape Town on 8-9 April 2014. For more information about the event contact Brandon Páramo by email: brandon@csptoday.com

About CSP Today
CSP Today is the reference point for CSP professionals and a cornerstone for communications within the industry. We provide business intelligence to the industry with focused news, events, reports, updates and information for the Concentrated Solar Thermal Power industry in markets such as India, South Africa, Spain, USA, Chile and the MENA region.