InfraCo Africa, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), announced on 18 January that a shareholders’ agreement has been signed with Berkeley Energy for the 520 MW Corbetti geothermal project. The agreement doubles InfraCo’s equity commitment to the project to $30m; $25m equity finance and $5m in standby equity, representing around 20% of the funding required to begin the drilling of up to six exploration wells this year and building a 10-20 MW pilot plant in 2019.
Following the pilot project, a second phase will raise senior debt for the drilling of a further 9-13 wells and a 50 MW commercial power plant. Depending on the success of the first two phases, further phases could expand capacity to more than 500 MW over a period of around a decade and at a cost of roughly $2bn.
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