The European Investment Bank (EIB) is bolstering solar initiatives across Europe with three significant loan agreements totalling €265m ($290.88m). These financial arrangements support solar photovoltaic (PV) projects in Spain, the expansion of rooftop solar panel installation in Belgium and the scaling up of ground-breaking solar technology in Sweden.
In Spain, the EIB signed an €80m loan with global energy company Cepsa to facilitate the construction of two solar PV plants in Andalusia, adding 227MW of electricity to the grid. The investment aligns with the EU’s cohesion objectives, addressing regional inequalities by deploying the entire 227MW of capacity in regions with lower per capita income.
Cepsa CEO Maarten Wetselaar highlighted that the two solar plants will add to the company’s existing green ambitions in the Andalusia region, where it is already “developing one of the most ambitious green hydrogen projects in Europe”.
“Solar power is a key ingredient for the production of green hydrogen, which can decarbonise heavy transport and industry, and also for other energy-intensive uses,” he said.
Additionally, the project supports the REPowerEU initiative, which focuses on enhancing energy security and reducing dependence on fossil fuel imports.
Moving to Belgium, the EIB extended a €150m framework loan to VGP Renewable Energy, a subsidiary of pan-European real estate company VGP. The funding will facilitate the installation of rooftop solar panels on logistics centres across the EU, supporting VGP’s ambitious renewable energy production initiatives.
The project is expected to generate up to 190 gigawatt-hours of renewable electricity annually, covering the consumption of up to 110,000 Europeans.
In Sweden, the EIB signed a loan agreement of up to €35m with Exeger, a Swedish cleantech company specialising in solar cell technology. The loan will support Exeger in scaling up the production of its patented Powerfoyle solar cells at the company’s second urban factory, Stockholm II.
Powerfoyle converts both indoor and outdoor light into electricity and enables low-consumption electronic devices to become self-powered. It has been commended for its potential to reduce electronic waste, replacing charging cables or single-use batteries, as well as its ultra-thin design, allowing it to be flexibly incorporated into a variety of products.
The project is backed by the InvestEU programme, which aims to support more than €372bn in additional investment for projects that help meet EU policy goals up to 2027.
“Having long-term funding through mechanisms like InvestEU helps ensure Europe’s sustainable industry continues to be competitive in the evolving global landscape,” said Giovanni Fili, CEO of Exeger.
The EIB is an EU lending institution that offers long-term funding for projects that contribute to EU policy priorities. In addition to these recent investments, the EIB has invested a notable amount in several solar projects throughout the year; notably, Solaria secured a $1.8bn loan to build PV plants across Spain, Italy and Portugal with 5.6GW of capacity and Banco Santander was granted a $213m loan for PV plants in Brazil with 600MW of capacity. These developments reflect the EIB’s commitment to advancing the energy transition and fostering technological innovation in the European power sector.
