Analysis

EBRD and BSTDB finance Ukraine’s largest ever solar plant

Ukraine will increase the share of renewables in its energy mix thanks to a new solar plant in the Mykolaiv region in the south of the country financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB). The 57.6 MW plant will be the EBRD’s and the BSTDB’s largest solar project in the country to date.

Both lenders are financing the construction of the solar plant with parallel loans of 19.1 million euros each will be provided by the EBRD and the BSTDB to a specially created project company Ingulets Energo – 2 LLC. On completion the new plant will be generating at least 65,000 MWh of renewable energy per year and help reduce annual CO2 emissions by approximately 40,000 tonnes.

The investment is being implemented under the EBRD’s 250 million-euro Ukraine Sustainable Energy Lending Facility III (USELF III) framework.

The EBRD is the largest international financial investor in Ukraine. Since the start of its operations in the country in 1993, the Bank has made a cumulative commitment of almost 13.1 billion euros across some 418 projects in Ukraine.

BSTDB’s cumulative portfolio in the Black Sea region includes 365 approved operations in the key sectors of infrastructure, energy, transport, manufacturing, telecommunications, finance and other areas, totalling about five billion euros.