EIB

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to lend €150 million ($160.2 million) for renewables in Bhutan, in order to fund solar and hydropower installations in remote regions. Solar facilities are expected to reduce Bhutan’s reliance on energy imports during the dry months of the year and diversify the nation’s electricity mix.

Europe’s leading battery maker, Northvolt, has signed a $5 billion non-recourse project financing arrangement to enable the expansion of Northvolt Ett in northern Sweden. The deal represents the largest green loan raised in Europe to date.

The European Investment Bank says a new €10 million ($10.5 million) loan will offer electricity access to almost 650,000 people in Benin.

If the EU is going to drive more than half a trillion dollars worth of hydrogen investment over the coming decades, it will need to get investors onside. The European Investment Bank has surveyed financiers to find out what they want.

Plus there is news this week of a green hydrogen tie-up in India, plans for another German production facility, and of new hydrogen transport networks for Switzerland and the U.S.

Seven PV plants being planned by Solaria have received direct backing from the European Investment Bank, with the EU lender also the source of a €14 million loan to Natixis which will be passed on to the Spanish developer.

With Australia prepping plans for vast green hydrogen and ammonia production facilities, two of the country’s state governments are trying to drum up the end-user market as agreements are signed to drive use of the gas in Ukraine and Poland.

A report commissioned by EU lender the EIB has dismissed the role solar mini-grids can play in achieving universal electrification by 2030 and signaled distribution to individual households should be the way forward, including sales to the residents of UN refugee camps in East Africa.

French energy company Total is developing the solar field near Samarkand, which will sell power to National Electric Networks of Uzbekistan under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

The European Investment Bank and Greece this week signed a first-of-its-kind agreement to jointly manage €5 billion of investment concerned with the EU member state’s post-Covid recovery plan. The strategy has a key focus on green energy.