green transition

Mytilineos secures €400m EIB loan for swifter RES growth

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Mytilineos Energy & Metals has secured 400 million euros in European Investment Bank (EIB) funding for the purpose of accelerating renewable energy production across Greece and other EU member states.

The Mytilineos group has shaped a strategy to develop, by 2027, a portfolio of solar energy projects and battery energy storage systems (BESS) enabling additional production capacity of approximately 2.6 GW.

The investment’s overall cost is estimated at 2.5 billion euros. All projects will be developed within the EU.

The EIB financing, linked to the EIB’s support for new investments in convergence regions where per capita income is lower than the EU average, confirms the bank’s commitment to equitable growth and convergence of living standards in the EU.

EIB Managing Director and Head of Operations Jean-Christophe Laloux and Hristos Gavalas, Chief Treasury & IR Officer and Executive Board Member at Mytilineos, signed a ten-year loan agreement in Athens on December 21.

This new financing agreement stems from an EIB support package for RepowerEU, the EU’s ambitious and lucrative plan aiming to reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports, accelerate the green transition, and help Europe achieve zero-carbon emissions by 2050.

Balkan potential highlighted by IPTO’s interest in MEPSO

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Greek power grid operator IPTO’s interest, for some time now, to acquire North Macedonia’s grid operator MEPSO, either through a strategic agreement or a share capital increase, points to the existence of opportunities for energy infrastructure upgrades in the neighboring country as well as the growing role to be played by electricity networks and corridors in the wider region.

As the energy transition progresses, electricity networks and corridors will no longer merely serve as electricity transmission lines, but promise to gradually replace oil and gas pipelines.

Greece, at present, remains sorely absent from the wider Balkan energy-sector activity. IPTO has yet to make any big moves beyond the country’s frontiers.

Though the western Balkans are currently experiencing a green-energy boom with RES investment growth having reached double digits in some countries, regional networks are outdated and insufficient to support this robust investment interest.

Though it is vitally important for Greece to assert itself as an influential energy-sector player in the Balkans, the flow of energy from the region towards central Europe is currently being controlled by Italy.

Italy’s influence, on energy matters, over the Balkans was expanded in recent years with Montenegro as a base and Italian power grid operator in a leading role, as highlighted by its acquisition of a 22 percent stake in Montenegrin power grid operator CGES.

Identifying the pivotal energy role of the Balkans early on, Italy took a strategic decision for the development of a first route linking the western Balkans and Europe in the form of a 445-km line – 423 km of it as an underwater Adriatic Sea crossing – from Pescara, on Italy’s east coast, to Kotor, on Montenegro’s Adriatic coast.

The small Balkan country has since become a bridge of energy exchange between eastern and western Europe as this Adriatic link has interconnected Italy’s network with those of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, and, by extension, Bulgarian and Romania.

Italian power grid operator Terna is now examining the prospect of boosting this line’s transmission capacity from 600 MW to 1,200 MW. Giuseppina Di Foggia, CEO at Terna, recently held talks in Rome with Montenegro’s new president, Jakov Milatovic, about this project.