EIB to support Polish solar energy project
The European Investment Bank (EIB) signed its first loan on Wednesday to a company building and running photovoltaic plants in Poland.
The EU bank will lend PLN 82 million (EUR 18 mln) to Energy Solar Projekty for the construction and operation of 66 small-scale, independent photovoltaic (PV) plants in northern Poland.
With an average nominal capacity for each plant of 1 MW or less, the total capacity will reach about 65.6 MW. This is the equivalent of 19,000 households that could be supplied with the energy generated by the project.
The project is guaranteed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), which is the financial pillar of the Investment Plan for Europe jointly managed by the European Commission and the EIB. The EIB is co-financing the project with DNB Bank Polska.
According to the EIB, the total installed capacity of all solar power plants in Poland reached around 1.3 GW at the end of 2019.
"The financing agreement signed today to build these solar energy plants is excellent news both for Poland’s economy and its environment. The European Green Deal will be at the heart of our efforts to rebuild our economies after the coronavirus pandemic and Poland should continue to make use of all the EU support on offer," European Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, said.
"This is the first concrete project financed by the EIB under a programme loan dedicated to solar energy in Poland and approved in 2018. We hope more will come to life in the near future," said Teresa Czerwinska, EIB Vice-President, who oversees the bank's operations in Poland.
