EIB and Deutsche Bank join forces to lift EU wind production

The European Investment Bank (EIB)’s €5 billion wind package kickstarted with the first €500 million counter-guarantee deal with Deutsche Bank, as part of a financial effort set to strengthen the European wind industry.

The European Commission’s European Wind Power Action Plan announced in October 2023 a dedicated guarantee mechanism provided by the EIB to back EU wind companies through commercial banks, in an effort to alleviate financial pressures and support a competitive manufacturing sector in the EU.

This first tranche, announced on Wednesday (31 July), activates the EIB’s €5 billion initiative.

“Together with Deutsche Bank, we are promoting the expansion of renewable energy in Europe and in that way bringing the price of sustainable energy down. The respective project will also help to safeguard and create jobs in a sustainable and competitive European industry,” the EIB’s Vice-President Nicola Beer said in a press release.

The 500 million should allow Deutsche Bank to set up a €1 billion guarantee facility to support new wind projects. The banking guarantees will back wind-energy manufacturer’s operations and investments.

“There is rapidly growing demand for wind turbines that are ‘made in Europe’, ” Phil Cole, director of industrial affairs at WindEurope, an industry association, said in a press release.

“Improved access to finance and de-risking instruments are central to ensuring Europe’s wind turbine manufacturers can keep up with this demand and ramp up their manufacturing output in line with the EU’s 2030 targets,” he said.

In response to questions from Euractiv about the scope of this support, EIB explained that “the banks that will profit from EIB support under the wind package can give guarantees to non-EU companies, as long as they have a production site in the EU”.

This first deal comes shortly after a German renewables developer,  Luxcara, closed a supplying deal with Chinese Mingyang for wind turbines.

On 9 April 2024, the Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager announced an investigation into Chinese suppliers of wind turbines, under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation.

The probe, which came amid concerns that some wind manufacturers benefit from unfair subsidies, is focused on wind parks in Spain, Greece, France, Romania, and Bulgaria.

“The EIB gradually increasing their commitment to renewable energies as well as net zero technologies is an important step,” Wolfram Axthelm, COO of the German Wind Power Association (BWE), told Euractiv.

“It is imperative to counter market-warping activities like the US-American Inflation Reduction Act or the state subsidies for the Chinese wind industry,” he said.

Axthelm further added: “With 4.174 Megawatts of awarded tenders and 5.201 Megawatts of new permits in the first half of 2024 alone, Germany is on a good path”.

On the next steps of the 5 billion initiative, the  EIB told Euractiv that they “ expect to close more deals under the package shortly” as it is currently in negotiation with banks and intermediaries from different EU countries.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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