OPIC Board Approves $185 Million For Two Solar Power Projects In Peru
June 18, 2012
(OPIC)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment
Corporation (OPIC), the U.S. Government's development finance institution,
approved $185 million in financing for the construction of two 20-megawatt solar
power plants in Peru that will produce nearly 100 million kilowatt hours of
electricity annually – a significant step forward in the renewable energy sector
for a country facing one of the lowest rural electrification rates in Latin
America.
The initiative is OPIC's second major solar project in Peru within a year: last
June, OPIC's Board approved $123 million in financing for the construction of
two 20-megawatt solar power plants – the first large-scale solar power project
in the country. That project was named the "2011 Latin American Renewables Deal
of the Year" by Euromoney Institutional Investor.
The new OPIC financing will enable Conduit Capital Partners, a private equity
investment firm, to finance the construction and operation of the Tacna and
Panamericana solar plants in Peru's rural south. All electricity generated by
the plants will be sold to Peru's national grid, supporting the country's effort
to diversify its sources of power generation.
"The Peruvian government, in partnership with the private sector, continues to
make great strides in bringing electricity to the majority of its population.
This project will enable Peru to take advantage of its great solar potential in
order to increase energy access in rural, poorer areas where the need is
greatest," said OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield.
The project is particularly designed to help Peru take advantage of its
significant solar potential: solar energy levels in the southern mountain ranges
exceed six kWh/m2/day, which are among the highest worldwide. But while access
to electricity in Peru has increased from 45 percent in 1990 to 89 percent in
2011, coverage in the predominantly poor rural areas is about 30 percent, with
more than six million Peruvians lacking electricity.
In 2005, OPIC provided $60 million in financing to Conduit's Latin Power III
fund, the latest of three investment funds which to date have in more than two
dozen power projects. In Peru alone, Conduit has invested in more than 1100 MW
of power generation facilities.
Conduit is a private equity investment firm focused on the independent electric
power industry in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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