EIB Provides €55m Green Loan for Iberdrola’s 100 MW Buniel Wind Farm in Spain

EIB signs €55 million green loan for Iberdrola and Caja Rural de Soria for wind farm in Castilla y León
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(IN BRIEF) The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted a €55 million green loan to a joint venture between Iberdrola and Caja Rural de Soria to build the Buniel wind farm in Burgos, Spain. The wind farm will have an installed capacity of approximately 100 megawatts and will generate enough electricity to power around 69,700 households while reducing CO2 emissions by 90,000 tonnes per year. The financing is classified as an EIB green loan, and the project supports the energy policy priorities of the EU and Spain. It is also expected to create up to 200 jobs during construction and around ten positions during operation.

(PRESS RELEASE) LUXEMBOURG, 3-Mar-2023 — /EuropaWire/ — The European Investment Bank (EIB), the lending arm of the European Union, has granted a €55 million green loan to a joint venture between Iberdrola and Caja Rural de Soria to build one of the largest wind farms in the Castilla y León region of Spain. The Buniel wind farm, located in the province of Burgos, will have an installed capacity of approximately 100 megawatts, producing enough clean energy to power approximately 69,700 households and reducing CO2 emissions by 90,000 tonnes per year.

The Buniel wind farm project is expected to cost around €100 million and will create up to 200 jobs during construction and around ten positions during operation. As the project is located in Castilla y León, a designated EU cohesion region, it supports the EIB’s regional development objectives.

The financing of the project is classified as an EIB green loan, fully complying with climate action and renewable energy eligibility criteria. The loan is also fully compliant with the requirements of EIB Climate Awareness Bonds, which may allocate the transaction to the EIB’s portfolio of lending operations financed by such bonds.

The project supports the energy policy priorities of the European Union and Spain, contributing to the 2021-2030 integrated national energy and climate plan and the European Commission’s REPowerEU plan to accelerate the green transition and end Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil fuel imports.

“We are pleased to be financing this wind farm, which is unique in many ways and will add an installed capacity of around 100 MW,” EIB Vice-President Ricardo Mourinho Félix said. “It will drive economic growth and employment in an EU cohesion region such as Castilla y León, and contribute to the climate goals of Spain and Europe.”

Chief Executive Officer of Iberdrola Spain Mario Ruiz-Tagle added: “Spain has great potential when it comes to renewable energy. With initiatives like this, we can help our country become a leader in the sector, facilitating investments that promote the transition towards an economy that is less dependent on fossil fuels, while also creating economic growth and employment.”

President of Caja Rural de Soria Carlos Martínez Izquierdo, who is also president of the joint venture promoting the wind farm, highlighted “the importance of having a presence in the local economy — an economy linked to renewable energy, in which we already have over 25 years of experience. And it all started in Soria. Investing in ‘energy freedom’ makes us more economically stable as a country. This issue has really come to the fore amid the current geopolitical situation, which has become so acute that it has pushed the need for clean, local energy to the very top of the agenda.” He also added that “the turbines were almost completely designed and manufactured in Spain, and were actually assembled in Castilla y León, in Ágreda, Soria.”

Background information:

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It finances sound investments that contribute towards EU policy goals.

The EIB and energy security

Over the past decade, the European Investment Bank Group has channelled almost €106 billion into the European Union’s energy sector. These vital investments are now helping Europe weather the crisis triggered by the abrupt cut in Russian gas supplies. In 2022 alone, the EIB signed financial support totalling more than €17 billion for projects in energy efficiency, renewables, electricity and storage in the European Union, thus helping to strengthen the resilience of the European economy.

In October 2022, the EIB Board of Directors decided to raise the Group’s clean energy financing volumes to unprecedented levels in support of the REPowerEU objective of ending Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil fuel imports. Over the next five years, an additional €30 billion will be invested on top of the EIB’s already robust support for the EU energy sector. The REPowerEU package is expected to generate an additional €115 billion in investment by 2027, thus making a substantial contribution to Europe’s energy independence and to the EIB Group’s target of mobilising €1 trillion in climate finance this decade.

Find out more about the EIB’s support for the energy sector here and about the latest energy projects we have financed here.

Iberdrola reaffirms its global leadership in green finance

Iberdrola is reinforcing its position as a leader in sustainable financing through its sustainability strategy, which focuses on electrifying the economy, mitigating climate change, and creating jobs and wealth in the regions where it operates.

The company’s net debt as of September amounted to €44.293 billion, including a green bond operation worth over €16 billion, environmental, social, and governance credit lines of a similar amount, €5 billion in commercial paper, and around €3 billion in loans and structured financing. All of these financing activities are sustainable, and the projects funded align with Iberdrola’s focus on UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) and SDG 13 (climate action).

Media contacts:

Press Office

press@eib.org
+352 4379 – 21000

David Yormesor
d.yormesor@eib.org
+352 2485 – 81346

Jose Vicente Alzola
j.alzola@ext.eib.org
+352 4379 – 72859

SOURCE: European Investment Bank