The European Investment Bank grants €110m loan to energy utility EVN AG for the deployment of 103MW of renewable energy.
A European Investment Bank (EIB) loan is set to enable EVN AG’s investments in wind farms, providing 72,650 Austrian households with green electricity. The project is expected to be completed by early 2025, and the €110m loan to co-finance it is part of the EIB’s contribution to the REPowerEU plan.
EVN AG is a leading energy and environmental services provider in Lower Austria. It draws upon hydropower, wind and solar energy sources to produce clean electricity through its subsidiary evn naturkraft Erzeugungsges.m.b.H. Its portfolio powers the equivalent of around 590,000 households and averts around 1.1 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. This new investment programme will enable EVN to further increase its capacity in wind and solar energy.
The projects will contribute to the climate action goals of the Austrian government. Under its National Energy and Climate Plan, Austria aims to generate 100% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030. The investment loan will be EVN’s fifth operation with the EIB and the first to qualify as a green loan.
The investment also contributes to the REPowerEU plan, which aims to eliminate the European Union’s dependence on Russian gas and oil. The EIB is supporting the initiative by raising its clean energy lending to unprecedented volumes, with an additional €30bn committed on top of its regular operations.
EIB vice-president Thomas Östros, said: “We are proud to invest into accelerating the greening of power generation in Austria. We will continue to support the development and roll out of renewable energy technologies. EVN’s ambitious roll out programme is good news for the green energy transition, which is a top priority for the EIB as the EU climate bank.”
The announcement comes alongside an EIB agreement with Banco Cooperativo Sicredi, a cooperative financial institution operating throughout Brazil, to promote the use of renewable energy in the country. At a ceremony in Brasilia, EIB vice-president Ricardo Mourinho Félix and Sicredi CEO César Bochi signed a loan for €200m that Sicredi will use to finance the installation of photovoltaic panels on homes, small and medium-sized businesses and rural properties.
The entire project will contribute to climate change mitigation in terms of the EU taxonomy. It will help Brazil pursue its targets for more renewable energy sources in annual electricity generation, furthering its ten-year national energy expansion plan.
