Estonia Gets EU Funding for Key Wind Farm Project

Estonia's state-owned power producer Enefit Green AS has signed a $191.93 million (EUR 180 million) loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for a wind farm project that is planned to supply about 40 percent of the country's annual household electricity consumption, both parties said.

Targeted for completion 2025, the onshore Sopi-Tootsi wind farm in North Parnu county has a capacity of 255 megawatts, the biggest wind farm under construction in the Baltic state, according to the company. It consists of 38 turbines, noted the European Union bank's announcement of the borrowing.

"The wind farm will increase national wind production by about 80 percent while reducing the country’s strong dependency on oil shale", EIB vice-president Thomas Ostros, responsible for EIB business in Estonia, said in a statement.

The EIB press release said, "The new installation will provide green energy equal to the average annual electricity consumption of more than 197 000 households and will be mostly located in cohesion regions, where per capita income is lower than the EU average, underlining the EIB’s commitment to equitable growth and the convergence of living standards.

"The investment will boost economic growth and employment, and forms part of the EIB’s dedicated package of support to REPowerEU — the EU plan to eliminate dependence on fossil fuel imports".

The 27-member bloc launched REPowerEU May 18, 2022 outlining measures toward independence from Russian energy. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine February 2022, the EU declared March 11 that year the phaseout of fossil fuels from its traditional exporter by 2027.

In support of REPowerEU, the bank last year committed $18.4 billion (EUR 17.06 billion) in financing for sustainable energy projects, according to an EIB media release February 2023.

“Green financing from the EIB increased substantially again to EUR 36.5 billion (58 percent of the total), meaning that the Bank met its commitment to devote at least half of its resources to climate action and environmental sustainability, well ahead of its 2025 target”, the Luxembourg-headquartered lender owned by EU states said in the February 2, 2023 announcement, referring to achievements last year. “Overall, the EIB Group is well on track to achieve its objective of supporting EUR 1 trillion [$1.07 trillion] in green financing this decade, having already backed EUR 222 billion [$236.74 billion] in investment over the past two years".

EIB president Werner Hoyer said in a statement about the 2022 figures, “At a time when the United States is rolling out the biggest green subsidy program in history, it is imperative that Europe keeps up and stays the course, both for the sake of our planet and for safeguarding the competitiveness of our economies”. Hoyer was referring to the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden August 16, 2022.

Announcing the loan approval Enefit said it is currently constructing five wind and three solar farms in Estonia, Lithuania and Poland with a combined capacity of 608 MW. "In 2023, Purtse hybrid wind and solar farm in Estonia and the Zambrow solar farm in Poland with a total capacity of 62MW have been completed and put into operation", said the company, a subsidiary of Eesti Energia AS. "During the upcoming six months, 43 MW Silale II and 75 MW Akmene wind farms in Lithuania, 72MW Tolpanvaara wind farm in Finland, 6MW Debnik and 3MW Estonia solar farm in Poland and Estonia, respectively, are expected to be completed".

“Enefit Green has a clear roadmap to quadruple production capacity by 2026 to increase the supply of affordable green energy and improve energy security", Enefit chief financial officer Veiko Raim said in a statement.

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