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EIB can increase its lending for renewable energy projects up to 75%

Oil&Gas Materials 7 August 2020 13:58 (UTC +04:00)
EIB can increase its lending for renewable energy projects up to 75%

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug.7

By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:

In the case of renewable energy, the European Investment Bank (EIB) can increase its lending up to 75 percent for projects providing a high policy value and where the EIB involvement accelerates the implementation of the project, the bank told Trend.

“This is notably the case in the EU for renewable projects involving market integration, community schemes or cross border schemes, or technologies at a relatively early stage of deployment. Outside EU, this is applicable to projects contributing to increasing the share of renewables in line with the Nationally Determined contributions (NDCs),” said EIB.

The EIB said that working with the European Commission and other partners, it will support the market integration of renewable electricity projects and promote increased regional cooperation.

“We will also back other types of renewables, including renewable heating, the production and integration of low-carbon gases such as hydrogen, and low-carbon fuels. The standard practice is that the bank supports up to 50 percent of the project investment cost,” said the bank.

In the case of energy efficiency, given the persistent investment gap, the EIB said it can support up to 75 percent for all countries, both inside and outside the EU.

Supporting EU energy policy has long been at the heart of EIB activity, with energy infrastructure financing of some EUR 62 billion over the last five years. This included over EUR 53bn to renewable energy, energy efficiency and electricity grid projects, in energy investment in Europe and around the world.

The EIB Board of Directors approved the proposal to phase out support to energy projects reliant on unabated fossil fuels. From 2022 onwards, the bank will no longer approve financing for (i) the production of oil and natural gas; (ii) traditional natural gas infrastructure (networks, storage); (iii) power generation technologies resulting in lifetime GHG emissions above 250gCO2/kWh, and (iv) large-scale heat production based on unabated oil, natural gas, coal or peat.

"While we have no explicit fossil fuel prohibition at present, the bank has not financed any oil or coal extraction projects since 1999. We have supported only two gas production projects since 2013."

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