OREANDA-NEWS. June 07, 2011. The EBRD is providing a loan to AS Graanul Invest, a leading Estonia-based wood pellet producer, that will boost the volume of green energy generated in the Baltic States and which continues the Bank’s support for sustainable energy infrastructure investments in the region, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

The EUR 34.4 million senior corporate loan will finance the construction of two biomass fuelled combined heat and power (“CHP”) plants in Estonia and Latvia, each with a capacity of 6.4MW of electricity and 15MW of heat.

The financing will also fund associated energy efficiency investments in Graanul Invest’s adjacent pellet plants, improving the operational efficiency of its pellet production.

This project is an important continuation of last year’s involvement by the Bank in the Baltic power sector, during which it supported major infrastructure investments aimed partly at replacing generation capacity lost after the closure of the Ignalina Nuclear Power plant.

This project will not only increase the power generation capacity in Estonia and Latvia, but also contribute to increasing the share of renewable energy in the energy mix of the two countries.

“Promoting renewable energy generation is one of the EBRD’s key priorities in the Baltics. This project will diversify the domestic power generation mix of Estonia and Latvia and will set an example of successful business in green energy”, said Nandita Parshad, EBRD Director for Power and Energy.

Recently the EBRD has provided financing for biomass CHPs in Poland and the Bank will continue to support similar projects in across the region of its operations.

“We would like to thank the EBRD for helping Graanul Invest to implement its expansion strategy, while improving further the efficiency of our operations by financing these two modern efficient CHP plants in Estonia and Latvia.” said Raul Kirjanen, Chief Executive Officer of Graanul Invest.

Since the beginning of the EBRD’s operations in the Baltics, the Bank has invested over EUR1.6 billion in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, implementing a total of over 230 projects in corporate, financial, energy and infrastructure sectors.