FMO has invested R85m ($5.51m) in Bokpoort Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Project in South Africa, using funding from AEF, alongside DEG and Lereko Metier.

The investment was carried out as a consortium giving FMO an indirect shareholder stake of 4.3% in the Bokpoort project via Lereko Metier SolAfrica Fund.

Mike Goldblatt, Executive in the Lereko Metier Sustainable Capital team, said: “The project has already supported numerous social development projects in the local municipality, from bursary schemes to solar home systems to support for the local high school."

"There will be ongoing social and economic development expenditure in both the surrounding rural and urban areas but more importantly there will also be a real locally owned stake in the project and a strong boost to development in the area”, he said.

Bokpoort CSP, in which Lereko holds 13% shares, is a 50 MW concentrated solar power project that was selected as the only CSP plant in the second round of the REIPPP.

Bokpoort CSP is headquartered in Johannesburg, with the plant itself located in a rural area of the Northern Cape Province.

The Bokpoort CSP has been developed by a consortium led by ACWA Power in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa

Bokpoort CSP uses CSP trough technology which currently makes up more than 95% of the installed base of global CSP capacity and has a thermal energy storage capacity of 1 300MWh (thermal), equivalent to about 9.5 hours of operation.

During construction the company contributed greatly towards job creation, both directly and indirectly.

During the construction peak over 1300 people were directly employed in the project, with 400 of them from the Kheis Municipality, most of whom were previously unemployed and unskilled.

Bokpoort has also created more than 60 permanent job throughout the operating and maintenance over the next 20 years.