Ministry of Finance deputy accountant general Avi Dor today said that the European Investment Bank (EIB) may participate in the funding for the Ashelim solar energy plants. Dor, who heads the project's tender committee, made the comment during a presentation of the latest changes in the tender at the Sheraton Moriah Hotel in Jerusalem. Although the deadline for bids is early December, it will reportedly be pushed back to sometime in the first quarter of 2010.
In order to encourage foreign companies to participate in the tender, and in view of the expected drop in the number of bids, the Ministry of Finance has decided to formally ask the EIB for subsidized long-term financing for the tender's winning consortium that will build and operate the Ashelim thermosolar plant.
The funding for the projects would come from the EIB's 2010 budget for renewable energy projects. Until now, in Israel, the EIB has only helped finance desalination projects.
Assuming that the Ministry of Finance reaches a deal with the EIB, it wants the EIB to provide financing for the Ashelim plant's builders next year. For the Ministry of Finance, EIB's participation will slash the financing cost, which will be reflected in the bids, because EIB interest rates are lower than the rates of commercial banks.
The EIB provided long-term financing for the Hadera desalination plant, owned by the H2ID Ltd. consortium. The EIB recently announced that it will provide half the financing for building the NIS 1.5 billion 100-million cubic meter a year Ashdod desalination plant, and the NIS 2 billion 150-million cubic meter a year Soreq desalination plant.
The Ashelim BOT (build, operate, transfer) tender is for two 90-110 Megawatt solarthermal power plants, at a total cost of $700-800 million. The tender is one of the largest of its kind in the world.
Two of the consortia considering the project may quit: one consortia of Israel Corporation (TASE: ILCO) subsidiary IC Green Energy Ltd. (ICG) and Canada's SkyPower Corporation; and the other led by France's EDF Energy SA ().
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 22, 2009
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