Argentinian oil supplier starts construction on 300MW solar park

From pv magazine LatAm

Last week, Argentina’s Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers, Luis Manzur, and the president of Argentinian oil and gas company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF), Pablo González, participated in the groundbreaking ceremony of a 300 MW solar plant in Bella Vista, in the Iglesia Department, in the country’s northern region of San Juan.

The Parque Solar Zonda project is expected to be built in three 100 MW phases and to require a total surface of 300 hectares.

The construction of the first phase of the project should take 14 months and require an investment of $90 million.

The oil company recently issued a $63.4 million green bond with an interest rate of 5% and a maturity of 10 years to finance the project.

When built, the 300 MW solar facility will raise the share of renewables in the San Juan Province to 25% and will equal the capacity of Argentina’s largest PV plant – the Cauchari solar project.

This project was selected by the Argentinian government in the first round of the RenovAr program and was financed with funds from the Chinese state-owned Export-Import Bank of China, and a $210 million bond issued by the province of Jujuy, where it is located. Argentinean energy provider Jemse owns an 80% stake in the project, with the remaining 20% split between Power China, Shanghai Electric and Talesun.