The European Investment Bank’s (EIB) board of directors has approved a EUR 5 billion package of counter-guarantees to help improve access to finance for wind energy equipment manufacturers.
The counter-guarantee scheme, which is part of the European Wind Power Package, was announced on 13 December.
In October, the European Commission (EC) presented its Wind Power Package to strengthen the competitiveness of Europe’s wind energy industry. According to industry body WindEurope, a key element of this is improving access to finance and providing de-risking tools and guarantees through the EIB.
The scheme is said to provide counter-guarantees to commercial banks to support the risk they are taking by providing their own guarantees to wind energy projects.
The EIB expects the scheme to support up to EUR 80 billion in new wind energy investment.
“The new counter-guarantees are crucial to our industry. They will improve access to finance and unlock investments in new wind farms and then factories,” said Giles Dickson , WindEurope CEO.
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Europe wants 420 GW of wind energy by 2030, up from 205 GW today, and to deliver that, Europe needs to expand and strengthen its wind supply chain, said WindEurope.
The counter-guarantee scheme ensures that the risk for the issuing commercial bank does not lie with the manufacturer, but instead with a third party, which in this case will be the EIB.
This will allow the commercial banks to provide the increased volume of guarantees that are now required, according to WindEurope.
The announcement follows the EIB’s dedication to yield EUR 45 billion in extra financing for the REPowerEU plan.