- NordLB receives EIB financing of €250 million to back energy transition investment.
- The loan will help finance the construction and operation of small to mid-sized renewable energy projects in EU markets.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale have signed an agreement to support renewable energy projects in EU countries. The €250 million in financing will be used to back solar photovoltaic investment, onshore wind and battery projects in several EU Member States, in particular Poland, Denmark and Sweden.
The operation will contribute to the objectives of the REPowerEU plan by rolling out clean energy capacity to support the European Union’s energy independence and security of supply. Speeding up the green transition and promoting investment in renewable energy is one of the priorities of the REPowerEU plan, which is also promoted and supported by the EIB Group.
A larger number of projects are expected to be developed in cohesion regions in Poland and non-euro area countries and they will mostly consist of onshore wind farms, solar photovoltaic projects and battery storage. As such, the investments will promote sustainable growth in EU regions where per capita income is lower, thus highlighting the EIB’s commitment to territorial and social cohesion.
The EU bank is deeply involved in supporting the energy transition. Last year alone, the EIB signed €20.86 billion in new financing for sustainable energy projects globally, which included €996 million committed in Poland, €49 million in Denmark and €389 million in Sweden. The EIB Group’s goal is to support €1 trillion in climate and sustainability investment in the decade to 2030 and to commit at least half of its annual financing volumes for this purpose.
EIB Vice-President Teresa Czerwińska said: “Transforming the energy sector in EU countries is the top priority for the EIB. We welcome NordLB’s new, multi-country initiative to support renewable energy projects as they will strengthen the European Union’s energy diversification, sustainability and independence.”
Heiko Ludwig, Global Head Structured Finance at NordLB, added: “Our cooperation with the EIB is widening our funding base and giving us access to promotional loans supporting the green transition. Working with the EIB to support the energy transition also underlines our role as one of Europe’s leading banks in the renewable energy sector.”
NordLB is one of Germany’s Landesbanken, which are part of the nationwide Sparkassen Group. It is a trusted EIB partner with long-term experience in financing renewable energy plants.
Background information
The EIB Group finance sound investments that contribute to EU policy goals, including social and territorial cohesion, and the just transition to climate neutrality.
The EIB was the first multilateral development bank to end support for fossil fuels and has committed to support €1 trillion in climate investment this decade. Over half of the EIB Group’s lending in 2022 was devoted to climate and environmental sustainability projects, while almost half of the EIB’s financing in the European Union was earmarked for projects in cohesion regions, where per capita income is lower, highlighting the Bank’s commitment to equitable growth.
EIB and energy security
Over the past decade, the European Investment Bank Group has channelled more than €100 billion into the EU energy sector. These timely investments are now helping Europe weather the crisis triggered by the abrupt cut in Russian gas supplies. In 2022, the EIB signed financial support totalling more than €20 billion for projects in energy efficiency, renewables, electricity and storage in the European Union, thus helping strengthen the resilience of the European economy.
In July 2023, the EIB’s Board of Directors decided to raise the Group’s clean energy financing volumes to unprecedented levels in support of the REPowerEU objective of reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil fuel imports by fast forwarding the clean transition. An additional €45 billion will be invested over the next five years, on top of the EIB’s already robust support for the energy sector in the European Union. It is estimated that the dedicated REPowerEU package will mobilise an additional €150 billion in investment by 2027, thus making a substantial contribution to Europe’s energy independence and the EIB Group’s target to mobilise €1 trillion in climate financing this decade.
NordLB / Norddeutsche Landesbank is one of Germany’s leading commercial banks. As an institute under public law, it is part of the S-Finance Group. Its core business segments include corporate customers, special financing in the energy and infrastructure sectors and for aircraft, financing commercial real estate via Deutsche Hypo, capital market business, association business with the savings banks, and private and commercial customers including private banking. The bank is based in Hanover, Braunschweig and Magdeburg and has branches in Bremen, Oldenburg, Hamburg, Schwerin, Düsseldorf and Munich. Outside Germany, NordLB is represented with a Pfandbrief bank (NordLB Covered Bond Bank) in Luxembourg and with branches in London, New York and Singapore.