European Investment Bank commits €180 million in financing to support construction of Estonia's largest wind farm
- The project is Estonia’s largest single investment in onshore wind energy to date.
- The wind farm will contribute to Estonia’s National Energy and Climate Plans and to the REPowerEU Plan.
- The output of the farm will cover 8.5% of the entire country’s electricity consumption and 40% of the electricity needs of household consumers.
Enefit Green and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have signed a €180 million financing agreement to support the construction of the Sopi-Tootsi onshore wind farm in Estonia. This will support Estonia’s path towards decarbonisation and energy independence. The loan period is 12 years.
“Enefit Green is pleased to start a strategic partnership with the EIB. The loan agreement signed today is an important part of financing the ongoing investment programme,” commented Veiko Räim, Member of the Board and Chief Financial Officer of Enefit Green.
“Enefit Green has a clear roadmap to quadruple production capacity by 2026 to increase the supply of affordable green energy and improve energy security. We are grateful for the trust and support that the EIB is showing towards our growth ambitions. This loan agreement not only provides us with the necessary financial resources to fuel our project, but it also reaffirms our common commitment to creating a cleaner, more sustainable future for generations to come.”
“The wind farm will increase national wind production by about 80% while reducing the country’s strong dependency on oil shale,” said EIB Vice-President Thomas Östros, responsible for EIB business in Estonia. “The EU bank is delighted to sign this important loan agreement to support both climate action and cohesion, contributing to the transformation of Estonia into a low-carbon economy on the country's path toward climate neutrality.”
The loan will help finance the design, construction and operation of the most modern and powerful Sopi-Tootsi wind energy facility in Estonia with a total nominal capacity of 255 megawatts. The projects include 38 wind turbines and the associated civil and electrical infrastructure. They will be developed in the southwest of Estonia, approximately 30 km from Pärnu Bay and the city of Pärnu.
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.
Background information
About Enefit Green
Enefit Green is one of the leading renewable energy producers in the Baltic Sea region. Its shares are listed on the Nasdaq Tallinn stock exchange with the company having more than 63 000 investors. Enefit Green owns wind farms in Estonia and Lithuania, combined heat and power plants in Estonia and Latvia, solar parks in Estonia and Poland, a pellet plant in Latvia and a hydroelectric plant in Estonia. The company is currently building five wind farms and three solar parks in Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Finland with a total capacity of 608 megawatts.
About the EIB
The EIB is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by the EU Member States. The EIB Group has adopted a Climate Bank Roadmap to deliver on its ambitious agenda to support €1 trillion of climate action and environmental sustainability investments in the decade to 2030 and to devote more than half of EIB finance to climate action and environmental sustainability by 2025. As part of the roadmap, all new EIB Group operations have been aligned with the goals and principles of the Paris Agreement since the start of 2021.
EIB and Estonia
Since 1993 the EIB has financed projects in Estonia totalling €3.95 billion. In 2022, nearly €172 million of EIB Group financing was signed for Estonian projects, mainly to support public infrastructure, healthcare, small businesses and innovation, including support to companies like Estonian Railway, E-Piim and Icosagen. In June 2023, the EIB supported public sector investments in Estonia via a €300 million loan to finance the green and digital transitions.
EIB and energy security, REPowerEU
In 2022, EIB Group signed more than €17 billion in new financing to support the energy transition in the European Union. This record figure confirms the EU bank’s commitment to ensuring access to sustainable energy at a time of great uncertainty. Our investments are helping Europe weather the crisis triggered by the abrupt cut in gas supplies in the aftermath of Russia’s brutal and unjustified attack against Ukraine.
In May 2022, the European Commission launched the REPowerEU Plan to rapidly reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels and fast-forward the green transition. The EIB agreed to support REPowerEU by raising the Group’s clean energy financing volumes to unprecedented levels between 2022 and 2027.
The EIB earmarked €45 billion for projects aligned with REPowerEU. This funding comes on top of the EIB’s already substantial support for the energy sector. Find out more about the EIB’s energy support here and the latest energy projects we have financed here.
