As part of its support EBRD is organizing the loan together with Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) to fund the solar plant, which will be located in Baikonur, central Kazakhstan, which is known as the base for space exploration and a testing ground.
Financial package for this project will include two senior secured loans of up to $30m in Kazakh tenge (KZT) equivalent from the EBRD, up to $10.4m from Clean Technology Fund and $12m from ADB.
Baikonur Solar is the recipient of the loan and it is a 100% subsidiary of United Green, a privately owned strategic investment group.
The investment includes the development, construction and operation of a ground-mounted fixed-installed solar photovoltaic power plant and the associated new substation in the Kyzylorda region of south Kazakhstan.
This solar plant is expected to reduce 75,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, had the electricity been generated from a fossil fuel-fired power plant.
This is the fifth project approved under the EBRD Kazakhstan Renewables Framework. Till now, EBRD claims to have invested $8.7bn in the economy of Kazakhstan.
In March, EBRD offered €31m to Mangistau Regional Distribution Company (MREK), a power utility company in Kazakhstan under post-privatisation support.
As part of the government’s strategic programme of privatising the state utility JSC “Samruk-Energy”, MREK was recently acquired by Kazakhstan Utility Systems (KKS), a privately-owned company that operates in electricity and heat generation, distribution and supply.
The loan from EBRD will be help in financing MREK’s priority investments, up to 40 subprojects, which include modernisation of the existing substations and distribution lines, the construction of new power lines, and the installation of Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition systems (SCADA) and modern automatic control systems.
