A consortium consisting of Saudi-based Acwa Power, Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC) and Alternative Energy Projects Company (AEPC) has achieved financial closure for the 500MW Ibri II solar project in Oman.
Located around 300km west of Muscat, the $400 million Independent Power Project (IPP), which will be Oman’s largest utility scale solar plant, is being developed on a BOO (build, own, operate) basis and is to be funded on a debt equity ratio of 70:30.
A syndicate of six international and local lenders, will provide the $275m senior debt. Mandated lead banks included, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Bank Muscat, Riyad Bank, Siemens Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Warba Bank.
“Successfully achieving financial closure during these challenging times is a testament to the determination of all the stake holders in this project to keep doing the best we can within the constraints we all need to work within,” said Paddy Padmanathan, chief executive officer of ACWA Power
At peak generation capacity, the plant output will be enough to supply an estimated 33,000 homes with electricity and will offset 340,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year.
