The EBRD provides a 57 mln euro loan to LUKERG Renew for developing a wind farm in Dobrogea

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) arranged a 57 million euro loan with LUKERG Renew, a joint venture between ERG Renew (part of Italian group ERG) and LUKOIL- Ecoenergo (Russia), for a 84 MW wind farm located in southeastern Romania - Dobrogea region, states a press release. The financing is structured under the bank’s A/B loan scheme, with 38 million euro on the EBRD’s account, while the remaining amount is for the account of UniCredit.

LUKERG Renew’s wind farm consists of 42 wind turbines located in the municipalities of Dorobantu, Topolog and Casimcea (the Tulcea County), each having an installed capacity of 2 MW, the electric power generated annually exceeding 200 GWh. It is the project marking the joint venture’s entry in the Romanian market in December 2012 when took over Land Power, a company formerly owned by Inergia SpA, which held the land rights and required permits for developing the wind power project, an investment estimated at 135 million and completed in the final quarter of 2013..

In early-April this year, LUKERG concluded a 67 million euro loan agreement with Raiffeisen Bank International AG and ING Bank NV for another wind project in its portfolio - the 70 MW Gebelesis wind farm which is located in Galati region.

The Topologu-Dorobantu wind farm is the eight domestic project financed by the EBRD which previously provided funds for the 108 MW Crucea North Wind Farm, the 138 MW Cernavoda I and II and the 90 MW Pestera wind farms, the 80 MW Chirnogeni wind farm as well as the 24 MW Vutcani and 33 MW Sarichioi wind farms, most of which are located in the Black Sea region of Dobrogea, as mentions the same source.

Hence, the EBRD’s wind energy portfolio in Romania stands at 473 MW, accounting for 18 percent of the total installed wind power capacity. Apart from the loans granted which come to more than 220 million euro, the bank made its own investment that adds up to 164 million euro.

Since the start of its operations in Romania the London-based lender has invested approximately 6.7 billion euro across over 360 projects. Last fall EBRD announced that plans to run investments worth up to 600 million euro in Romania in 2014, maintaining a level, in terms of investments, similar to that recorded in the past year.