OCI Holdings said on the 26th that on the 23rd (local time) its U.S. subsidiary, OCI Energy, completed financing for the 260-megawatt (MW) Sun Roper project, which it is jointly developing on a 50-50 basis with Israeli energy corporations "Arava Power" (Arava Power).
Global financial institution ING Capital, as sole arranger, will provide a financing package of about $394 million (about 568 billion won), with numerous global partners including specialized builders, technical advisors, and law firms participating to support the project's stable execution.
The Sun Roper project joint venture, established in Feb. last year, is a solar power plant under construction with a site of about 2 million pyeong (about 6.93 million square meters) and an installed capacity of 260 MW in Wharton County, southwest of Houston. The area is more than twice the size of Yeouido and corresponds to the amount of electricity that about 60,000 households of four in Korea could use sufficiently in a day.
OCI Energy and Arava Power plan to begin commercial operation of the plant in the third quarter next year. They also signed a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) to supply clean energy for 20 years to key Texas power demand facilities, securing a stable revenue structure.
The project meets the requirements to start construction and, under the OBBB bill, can receive a refund of up to 40% of investment costs by combining a 30% investment tax credit (ITC) available if groundbreaking occurs by July 4 with a 10% energy community bonus.
Lee Woo-hyun, chairman of OCI Holdings, said, "We will move away from the existing structure of selling projects right before completion and directly operate them through forms such as joint venture investments to generate long-term power sales revenue," adding, "Going forward, we plan to expand a competitive pipeline not only in Texas but across the United States."