Investment Plan for Europe: EIB provides EUR 50 million loan to finance biomass plant in Galicia developed by Greenalia Group

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  Located in the municipalities of Curtis and Teixeiro in La Coruña, the plant will be supplied with forest waste sourced within a radius of 100 kilometres
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  The project will help create 35 new direct jobs and 100 indirect jobs
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  This is the first biomass plant to be financed by the EIB i under the Juncker Plan

The European Investment Bank (EIB) today granted a EUR 50 million loan to a subsidiary of Greenalia S.A. to finance a new biomass-fired power plant being built in the La Coruña municipalities of Curtis and Teixeiro on a 103 000 m² publicly owned site. This biomass plant, which is the first to be financed by the EIB under the European Investment Plan, will be capable of generating 324 GWh of electricity per year from forest waste collected within a radius of 100 kilometres around the new facility.

The EIB financing, together with another EUR 50 million loan from various financial institutions, will be provided via a Project Finance arrangement for the construction and operation of this new facility, which will have a capacity of around 50 MW.

To generate this energy, the plant will use about 500 000 tonnes of forest biomass a year. The project will therefore contribute to forest maintenance in the area and also to fire prevention, while encouraging the collection, for industrial use, of small wood waste that is normally discarded. The biomass used by the plant will be FSC or PEFC-certified.

Once it becomes operational (planned for 2020), the Curtis-Teixeiro plant will increase the generation of energy from renewable sources and thus help to meet the targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions set out in the National Renewable Energy Action Plan (PANER) 2011-2020.

In addition to the positive environmental impact, this EIB-funded project will generate economic and social benefits, promoting job creation and economic growth in rural areas. 400 people have been employed for the construction of the plant, and once it is up and running, 35 permanent jobs will be created and around 100 additional indirect jobs in the waste supply chain.

The EIB is providing this loan under the Investment Plan for Europe, known as the “Juncker Plan”. This increases the EIB Group’s capacity to finance investment projects that, in line with the Plan’s criteria, involve activities which by their structure or nature have a higher risk profile. This project is one of the first to be implemented under the new regulatory framework for the industry approved in Spain in 2013. Greenalia was the winning bidder in Spain’s first auction for new renewables-based power generation facilities in early 2016.

The EIB and climate action

The EU bank is the multilateral institution that provides most finance for climate action worldwide. Last year, it devoted more than 25% of its total activity to this priority.

In 2017, the EIB provided EUR 870 million to finance projects in Spain involving the development of cleaner means of transport and implementation of new, less polluting and more environmentally-friendly production processes.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy objectives.

The Investment Plan for Europe, known as the “Juncker Plan”, is one of the European Commission’s top priorities. It focuses on boosting investment to generate jobs and growth by making smarter use of financial resources, removing obstacles to investment, and providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects.

The European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) is the main pillar of the Juncker Plan and provides first loss guarantees, enabling the EIB to invest in more projects that often come with greater risks. EFSI has already yielded tangible results. The projects and agreements approved for financing under EFSI are expected to mobilise more than EUR 335 billion in investment and support some 700 000 SMEs in the 28 Member States.

More information on the results of the Investment Plan for Europe is available here.