February 7, 2022
Last Tuesday, the Provincial Council of Overijssel approved the proposed additional investment of 50 million euros for Energiefonds Overijssel by the European Investment Bank (EIB). This paves the way to temporarily increase the financing capacity to 330 million euros.
Further sustainability for the province
The collaboration between the province of Overijssel, the EIB, and Energiefonds Overijssel is the result of a long process and a long-held wish of the province to attract more resources from Europe. Through the fund expansion, StartGreen Capital, as the fund manager of Energiefonds Overijssel, is enabled to make the province of Overijssel even more sustainable.
Anouk Blüm, Director of Financing at StartGreen Capital: “The EIB loan will enable us to stimulate great, impactful initiatives through Energiefonds Overijssel. In addition, the Provincial Council has given us the green light to broaden our financing scope. Besides renewable energy projects, such as solar projects, we can now also invest in circular projects, for example. Furthermore, we can now participate earlier in the development of projects, a phase with slightly more risk. This allows us to make even more impact.”
European subsidies
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the lending institution of the European Union; the EIB’s shareholders are the EU member states. Both EFO and the province were assessed by the EIB as stable and reliable partners in the lead-up. In December 2021, the EIB board approved the application. With the support of the EIB, EFO’s financing capacity will (temporarily) grow to €330 million.
Engine of the Overijssel energy transition
Overijssel aims to obtain 20 percent of its total energy needs from renewable energy by 2023 and to be energy neutral by 2050. Energiefonds Overijssel – the regional energy fund of the province of Overijssel – has been contributing to the financing of this challenge since 2013.
Since its establishment at the end of 2012, Energiefonds Overijssel – managed by StartGreen Capital – has already provided more than €277 million in financing to companies: resources that contribute to making the Overijssel economy more sustainable. As a public fund, Energiefonds Overijssel finances where the market does not always (fully) participate, because the expected return on these investments is too low, too late, or too uncertain and/or the risk is too high.
Examples of the types of projects that can be supported with EIB funds can be found at: www.energiefondsoverijssel.nl.
There you will also find the press release from Energiefonds Overijssel regarding this expansion.
