Investing in sustainability: wind and solar power records

Investing in sustainability: wind and solar power records

CDP has confirmed its support of key sectors for the sustainable development of the country with two new schemes: €1.3 billion invested in the green energy sector in the three year period 2015-17

Efficiency, containing costs, competitiveness and environmental sustainability: key words for the new National Energy Strategy which, according to MISE, will encourage further investments in the renewable energy sector of up to €35 billion until 2030. CDP, which has always been committed to promoting sustainable economic development, has been involved by investing €190 million in two of the largest financing transactions relating to the Italian renewable energy market.

The first deal, with the EF Solare Italia group - a joint venture between Enel Green Power and F2i - represents the most significant deal amount wise so far in the Italian solar power market: €1.02 million of financing for a finance based project involving CDP and five other leading Italian and international banks, to consolidate the, up to now, extremely fragmented solar power market. The transaction will support the growth of EF Solare Italia through the completion of its financial and corporate structure, and in the process of production capacity aggregation and optimization and regional enhancement.

The second loan, for an amount of €100 million, was instead closed with E2i Energie Speciali, a partnership of Edison, EDF EN and F2i for the development of the wind energy market. This unique sector transaction, in terms of financial structure, will support the construction of new greenfield plants and the re-powering of existing plants with the use of new innovative technologies especially in central and southern Italy, increasing the production of green energy with particular attention on soil exploitation.

These schemes are part of the broader streamlining process of the Italian electricity market which, by reducing costs and progressively improving programming levels for feeding energy into the grid, is consolidated by paving the way for new investment opportunities in the area: the development of economies of scale and increasing competitiveness are in fact the basis for the development of the sector also in the context of grid parity.