Endesa, a subsidiary of Italian energy company Enel, has secured €300m loan from Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) to finance the construction of 789MW of renewable energy projects including wind and solar across six different regions in Spain.
Image: ICO chairman José Carlos García Quevedo and Endesa CEO José Bogas. Photo: Courtesy of Endesa S.A.
As per Endesa, the loan will be used in the construction and commissioning of wind and solar plants this year across the regions in Aragón, Castilla la Mancha, Extremadura, Galicia, Murcia and Castilla y León, in the country.
Endesa stated that the loan will be paid back over 12 years with a two-year grace period on the loan principal. It plans to invest more than €1.8bn in renewables by 2021 to develop nearly 2GW in new energy installations.
Endesa stated that it has secured a green loan from ICO and in order to classify the loan as green, the Spanish State Finance Agency has used guidelines issued by the Loan Market Association (LMA). The green loan principles were published last March and provide high-level framework of market standards.
The guidelines demand the application of consistent methodology across the wholesale green loan market based on four core components which include, offering clarification on the use of proceeds; establishing a process for project evaluation and selection; ensuring correct management of proceeds; and making up to date information readily available on the use of proceeds to be renewed annually until fully drawn. Endesa must fully comply with these four principles during the loan period.
The investment to be financed by the loan is included within the company’s 2019-2021 Strategic Plan, in which one of the objectives is achieving full decarbonisation of its generation mix by 2050 by rigorously deploying renewable energies and optimising other generation technologies during the transition period.
The company secured 540MW wind and 339MW solar power in the auctions held in May and July 2017 for new renewable electricity facilities in the country. The total investment for these facilities is estimated to reach over €800m up to 2020. The additional 879MW won will also double its present renewable assets.