European industrial and logistics developer CTP has secured financing of €200m from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the roll-out of a large-scale programme of solar panel installation across its European business park portfolio.
CTP, which has a portfolio of 10.9m sq m of I&L assets across central and eastern Europe, said the 10-year unsecured loan would enable it to accelerate “energy transition, strengthen the security of power supply, and boost climate action and social and economic cohesion”.
In the longer term the developer intends to create completely energy independent industrial parks where all energy used onsite is created within the park and excess energy is fed into the local electricity grid to support neighbouring communities.
Richard Wilkinson, group chief financial officer at CTP, said: “The backing of the European Investment Bank is testament to the robust business strategy we have in place to deliver on the large-scale installation of solar PV across our portfolio, and allows us to obtain long-term unsecured financing at attractive conditions. Sustainable financing is the way forward, and we are proud to add the European Investment Bank as a new financial partner in this.”
Peter Ceresnik, chief operating officer at CTP, added: “CTP has long been a pioneer in the development of sustainable industrial and logistics space and we now applying the same long-term vision and ambition to renewable energy. The European Investment Bank’s financing will accelerate our plans to maximise the solar potential of our portfolio and help us meet our medium-term goal of installing 400MWp by 2026.
“It will also help us achieve our longer-term vision for our parks to become energy positive, meaning they can produce and share excess renewable energy, benefitting not only our clients and the local communities where we operate, but also the planet.”
Lilyana Pavlova, EIB vice-president, said: “There is enormous untapped potential for renewable energy in central and eastern Europe. With loans like the one to CTP we help countries in the region to break away from fossil fuels, lower their dependency on energy imports and ultimately bring down electricity prices for everybody’s benefit – a transition that makes economic and social sense.”
