ITOCHU Corporation and Abengoa Solar form a partnership to jointly own two 50 megawatt Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants in Spain.

-The two solar plants represent a total investment of more than 500 million euros.-

December 20, 2010

Seville, December 20th, 2010.- ITOCHU Corporation and Abengoa Solar have formed a partnership to own two 50 megawatt Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants in Logrosán (Cáceres), Extremadura, Spain. ITOCHU will take a 30% stake while Abengoa Solar, who will also operate both facilities, will retain control of the project with a 70% stake.

The two 50 megawatt CSP plants represent a total investment of more than 500 million euros, of which a total of around 340 million euros has been raised through a project finance loan. On December 16th, ITOCHU and Abengoa Solar have concluded the finance agreements with four international commercial banks: SMBC, HSBC, Mizuho and BTMU with the Overseas United Loan Insurance program support of NEXI, a Japanese export credit agency.

The two 50 megawatt CSP plants, which are already under construction by the Abengoa companies Abener and Teyma (*1), are expected to start their commercial operation in 2012 and will sell power to the grid based on the Spanish feed-in tariff system. The plants will benefit greatly from abundant solar radiation in Extremadura. Utilizing parabolic trough technology(*2), they will produce enough energy to meet the electricity needs of 52,000 households and achieve emissions reductions totaling approximately 63,000 tons of CO2 per year.

In addition to the two projects in Extremadura, ITOCHU and Abengoa Solar have signed an agreement to collaborate in the analysis and development, on a non-exclusive basis, of further projects, mainly in Asian and European markets.

Toshihito Tamba, ITOCHU’s Executive Vice President, mentioned that “ITOCHU has shown aggressive moves on the environment & new energy field. We have built a competitively superior value chain in the solar energy field by organically linking all areas such as upstream raw materials, midstream intermediary products and downstream system integration and solar power generating plants. This partnership with Abengoa Solar enables us to reinforce the value chain by participating in the concentrating solar power business on a global basis. ITOCHU will continue to contribute to the world environment.”

In turn, Santiago Seage, Abengoa Solar’s CEO, said “This partnership with a leading Japanese trading firm and the participation of international banks confirms the growth potential of CSP fuelled by the international investment community. For Abengoa Solar, it constitutes another step forward in the execution of our pipeline of projects that have secured their registration in the feed-in-tariff pre-assignment registry set up last year in Spain”.

  1. Abener is an engineering company affiliated with Abengoa and has contracted to build the plants. Teyma, a civil engineering firm also with Abengoa, will carry out the foundation works for the plans. 
  2. Parabolic trough technology operation is based on solar tracking and concentration of sunrays onto receiving pipes with a high degree of thermal efficiency that are placed along the cylinder focal line. Inside these pipes a heat-transmitting fluid is heated to approximately 400ºC (750ºF) by means of the concentrated sunrays.
    This fluid is pumped through a series of heat exchangers to produce superheated steam. The heat present in this steam is turned into electrical energy inside a conventional steam turbine. Further information is available at: www.abengoasolar.com[Open in a new window]

About Abengoa Solar

Abengoa Solar focuses its activity on the development and application of technology for generating electrical power with the sun. Abengoa Solar has 550 megawatts in solar projects under construction, in addition to 193 megawatts in commercial operation.

Company name Abengoa Solar
Representative Santiago Seage
Headquarters Seville, Spain
Established 1984
Number of employees 388 (as of Dec 31, 2009)
Revenues 116 million euros (FY2009)
URL http://www.abengoasolar.com/[Open in a new window]

About Abengoa

Abengoa is a technology company that applies innovative solutions for sustainability in the infrastructure, environmental, and energy sectors. Abengoa is listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange and is present in more than seventy countries, where the company operates through its five Business Units: Solar, Bioenergy, Environmental Services, Information Technologies, and Industrial Engineering and Construction.

Company name Abengoa S.A.
Representative Felipe Benjumea Llorente
Headquarters Seville, Spain
Established 1941
Consolidated number of employees 23,323 (as of Dec 31, 2009)
Revenues 4,147 million euros (FY2009)
URL http://www.abengoa.com/[Open in a new window]
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