Dutch development bank FMO has agreed to provide $26m in long term loan to Argentine energy company Genneia for the development of two wind farms, totaling 78MW.
Image: Land at which one of the two wind farms will be constructed. Photo: Courtesy of FMO.
These two wind farms will be located at Villalonga and Chubut Norte in the provinces of Buenos Aires and Chubut. The wind farms are expected to generate enough electricity to be supplied to about 110,000 people.
FMO’s total financing in Argentina to support the country in its strategy to boost its share of renewable energy has reached $90m. Argentina has a goal of generating 20% of its energy from renewable resources by 2025, from just 2% currently.
Financing of the two wind farms is being provided under the Argentine Government’s RenovAr programme, which was rolled out in 2015 to attract foreign investors into the energy sector. Under the RenovAr programme, FMO earlier provided two loans to wind energy and solar power projects in the country.
Overall, the energy projects participated by FMO in the country have a capacity of more than 200MW. The electricity generated by the projects is equivalent to supplying energy to about 300,000 people.
FMO energy director Frederik van Pallandt said: “FMO and other development finance institutions are strongly supporting Argentina’s ambition to move towards a more sustainable domestic energy supply base and cut its dependence on hydrocarbon imports.
“This is the bank’s third investment in the renewable power generating industry in the country and the first where an Argentine company is implementing the projects.”
Together with a credit from the Latin American development bank CAF, FMO‘s loan is covering the unsecured part of the total $131m in debt package for Genneia. A significant part of the financing is provided by Japanese bank SMBC and insured by Danish export credit agency EKF.