News: European investment bank supports investment in renewable energy in Estonia
Estonia’s energy mix will become more environmentally sound and realize greater security of supply due to wind power and waste-to-energy projects financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB). Under an investment agreement signed on 16 December 2011 in Tallinn with energy company Eesti Energia, the EIB will provide a EUR 50 m loan for a waste-to-energy plant in Iru, near the Estonian capital. It will also provide a 45 Euro million loan for two onshore wind parks, one of several such investment projects supported by the EIB in the Baltic Sea Region. The wind parks will be constructed in Narva and Paldiski, involving 39 MW and 22 MW respectively, assist Estonia reach it's EU 2020 targets for renewable energy.
The new waste-to-energy facility is located at an existing heat and power production site, which will reduce investment costs. It is set to partly replace existing gas fired units in the Iru power plant created in 1980 to reduce dependency on imported gas and adapt to higher environmental standards in the future. Moreover, the project will reduce significantly the exploit of landfills.
These EIB loans are among many supporting the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and its four goals:
- sustainable environment;
- regional prosperity;
- increased accessibility and attractiveness;
- safety and security;
We are glad to support these two important investments which will benefit Estonia in increasing the production of the renewable energy, in reducing emissions and in strengthening security of energy supply.
Eesti Energia aims to be competitive producer on the opening regional electricity market and our goal is to diversify our production portfolio through more environmentally sustainable methods of electricity generation. We are making a muliple of investments to achieve this and we are glad to have EIB support,
said Raine Pajo, Eesti Energia's Member of the Management Board in charge for electricity and heat generation.