Bumped, last published on December 14th, 2011.
As blogged earlier, the power supply for Oyu Tolgoi is right now a topic for discussion for the Mongolian government and Ivanhoe.
With this post, I would like to strongly advocate for building some solar capacity.
For one, the World Bank just decided to give a $297 million loan to Morocco for financing a 500 MW concentrated solar power plant. These loans come at conditions of 0.49% over the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) for 6 months loans, which stands at 0.67% right now. Add some fees and you are looking at conditions of around 1.3% interest.
That should compare very favorable with interest Ivanhoe would need to pay on the free capital market for a coal plant project.
The Morocco project is for concentrated solar power, which provides electricity around the clock over molten salt storage.
I also understand that time is valuable right now. While solar photovoltaic won’t work around the clock, it could provide some serious power with a construction time of about three months. A recent German project of 78 MW built right out of the box was finished in that time.
Related posts:
On Morocco: November 18, 2011 $297 million World Bank loan for solar in Morocco
November 19, 2011 World Bank Youtube videos on Morocco Ouarzazate solar plant
On Oyu Tolgoi: November 16, 2011 Cameron McRae presentation on Oyu Tolgoi
November 18, 2011: Mongolian government discussing Oyu Tolgoi power plant
November 15, 2011 Oyu Tolgoi power plant
[...] recall having advocated for doing that in February in a post titled “Oyu Tolgoi solar power plant” (with list of related [...]