Europe is an industrialized country with large energy needs and high environmental standards that promote the development of RES, including the Wind farms financing in Austria.

Lacking access to the sea, thus being cut off from the highly efficient offshore wind energy technologies, Austria has focused on the construction of onshore wind farms in the foothills of the Alps, mainly based on medium-power wind turbines.

Although for many decades the country relied mainly on fossil fuels and conventional thermal energy, today investment and wind farms financing in Austria is experiencing a boom.

How much does it cost to build one medium-sized onshore wind turbine in Austria?

What does this investment mean for the local economy and business?

Let’s look at the numbers and statistics:

• A typical 3MW wind turbine supplies up to 2,000 Austrian households with green energy, reducing the local economy’s CO2 emissions by 4,500 tons per year.

• The average cost of each wind turbine is 5 million euros, with 1.5 million added value for local companies being created during the production and construction stages.

• Each turbine creates about 20 temporary jobs during construction and installation and 2 permanent jobs for local communities during operation and maintenance.

Wind energy sector already plays a significant role in stabilizing electricity prices in Austria, and this tool will become increasingly important after the European decision to reduce dependence on Russian natural gas.

Experts expect the growth of investment in Austrian wind energy in the next few years. In particular, the demand for long-term investment lending, project finance services and related financial services for large businesses will increase significantly.

CP Finance UK offers long-term loans for the construction of wind power plants in Austria and other European countries.

We also provide project finance services, financial modeling services, financial engineering and consulting.

Contact us to learn more.

Financing of wind energy projects in Lower Austria

Lower Austria is a fairly developed and economically active region with a population of about 1.7 million people, which has huge energy needs.

This region is unable to cover its consumption with renewable energies. Nevertheless, the total share of renewable sources in the energy balance of the region is now about 92%, and 29% of energy needs are covered by wind farms. For comparison, in 2005, the share of wind energy in the energy balance of Lower Austria was only 5%.

As of the end of 2021, the federal state of Lower Austria had 735 large and small wind energy facilities with a total installed capacity of over 1.75 GW. This accounted for about half of Austria’s total wind energy capacity, making this federal state the undisputed leader in the industry.

Annual wind generation in this region reaches 4 TWh, and this figure is constantly increasing with innovative technologies and investments.

Favorable topography and huge wind energy potential attract many investors to Austria, who are ready to invest long-term financial resources in the further development of the wind energy sector.

Lower Austria’s existing wind energy projects help reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 1.8 million tons, which is equivalent to 720,000 passenger cars. Moreover, the enterprises of the sector perform an important social and economic role, providing the local community with 1,100 additional jobs (not including indirect jobs in related fields).

Annual investment in the construction of wind farms in Lower Austria reached a peak after the liberalization of state policy in 2012. In particular, in 2015 the total investment in the wind energy sector of this federal state amounted to about 470 million euros, after which it gradually decreased to 25 million euros in 2020.

By the way, 2020 was the only year when the total installed capacity of wind farms in the region decreased (-21 MW) due to the planned decommissioning of old turbines against the background of insufficient investments to restore the park.

In all other years, starting from 2015, the annual increase in installed capacity ranged from +62 to +284 MW.

From that moment on, local authorities and businesses again began to take up the financing of wind energy, which was largely due to the sharp rise in fossil fuel prices. During 2021, 22 facilities with a total investment of more than 100 million euros will be built in Lower Austria. In particular, new large wind farms were installed in Bruck an der Leitha, Gänserndorf and Mistelbach. In 2022, 57 wind power projects were planned with an installed capacity of about 225 MW.

In 2022, wind energy investments will exceed 300-350 million euros against the backdrop of uncertainty with future gas supplies, rising hydrocarbon prices, and the urgent need to diversify the region’s energy mix.

Coming years can safely be called an ideal time for  new wind farms financing in Austria, as well as for the expansion of existing facilities.

The availability of renewable electricity will be decisive for a region’s economic development in the future. We are talking about increasing installed capacity, expanding electricity grid, bringing wind energy facilities closer to end consumers and stabilizing electricity prices, which have been showing rapid growth across Europe since 2022.

Wind energy investments in Austria are on the rise

Around 65 TWh of electricity are currently consumed in Austria every year.

At the end of 2017, wind turbines provided about 7 TWh, which is only 11% of electricity requirements.

By 2022, wind power could already cover 20% of electricity requirements. If around 120 wind turbines are erected per year by 2030, wind power can cover 26% of Austria’s needs. Obviously, this will require colossal private investment, long-term lending and government support.

In the early 1990s, when wind energy technologies were just beginning to develop, experts considered Austria to be unsuitable for building wind farms on a commercial scale. However, for many years, local enthusiasts financed and conducted research on the wind resources, discovering the great wind energy potential of the foothills of the Alps. The first wind turbine was launched in Austria in 1994, but the booming development of this sector only started in the early 2000s.

Between 2002 and 2012, Austrian legislation in the field of wind energy underwent significant changes, which contributed to a significant acceleration of the development of the technology and the construction of a large number of private projects.

With an amendment to the Green Electricity Act (Ökostromgesetz 2012), which came into force in 2012, preferential conditions for wind energy restored, enabling the further expansion of wind energy in Austria. In the second stage of the expansion, wind energy production doubled in just 4 years.

At the end of 2021, Austria had about 1,300 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of 3.3 GW. According to experts, by the end of 2022, this figure will exceed 3.7 GW.

Today, commercial banks are ready to provide long-term investment loans for the construction of new wind farms in Austria in view of the maturity of the technology and the great prospects of green energy sector.

By 2030, 20% of the energy consumed in the European Union will be provided by renewable energy sources. The federal government’s new program calls for 100% renewable electricity by 2030. This is extremely important for the Austrian energy industry in the context of a sharp rise in natural gas prices due to geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe.

The main investments in wind power in Styria came in the period 2012-2019, when the total installed capacity grew from 53 MW to 260 MW. It should be noted that in the period from 2019 to 2021, the installed capacity of wind energy did not increase.

This policy is likely to be changed in the near future under the influence of major macroeconomic and political shifts in Europe.

If you are interested in long-term wind farms financing in Austria or other European countries, contact CP Finance UK FINANCE LIMITED.

We offer investment credit up to 90% of the project cost, and we also use flexible project finance tools for large capital-intensive facilities.

Investors and companies are stepping up in financing for biomass energy projects around the world from the angles of growing interest in renewable energy sector.

CP Finance UK offers long-term financing for large energy projects, including loans for the construction of biomass thermal power plants.

Our experienced financial underwritten team is ready to provide you with comprehensive support at all stages of the investment project, guiding you from the stage of pre-investment studies and contracting to the operation of the finished facility.

Woody biomass, cereal straw, corn production waste and other agricultural waste can become a valuable fuel for biomass thermal power plants. Agriculture and forestry has enormous potential for the production of biomass for the generation of electricity and heat. Modern biomass energy projects are able to produce natural gas from silage and manure, which is especially important for countries that are heavily dependent on hydrocarbon imports. However, the cost of project financing for biomass energy varies widely from 1 to 5 million euros per 1 MW of installed capacity, which requires a flexible professional approach to financing biomass energy projects

Investment side of biomass energy projects

Companies should also take into account the growing competition in the fuel market due to the gradual replacement of natural gas in heat production. This means rising prices for organic waste and the continued complexity of logistics processes.

Electricity generation from biomass thermal power plants is considered to be one of the most challenging businesses in the green hydrogen energy sector from an economic and operational point of view.

1. Financing of biomass energy projects are heavily dependent on a continuous supply of large volumes of organic waste. Unlike solar power plants and wind farms, which operate on “endless” natural resources, a biomass thermal power plant is very demanding in terms of logistics, which includes the interconnected processes of harvesting, transporting and processing agricultural or wood waste.
2. high technical complexity and operating costs. Compared to other renewable energy projects, biomass thermal power plants are the most difficult to operate. For example, the 10 MW thermal power plant mentioned above may require the installation of about 2000–3000 sensors of various types, which, combined with sophisticated control systems, will require hundreds of thousands of euros for maintenance, periodic repairs and upgrades.
3. 3) important aspect is the construction period. The construction of a biomass thermal power plant requires 2–3 years, including the stages of engineering design, construction and installation of equipment.

Of course, the cost of biomass is not commensurate with the current prices of natural gas and fuel oil, which skyrocketed amid the geopolitical upheavals of 2022, but each project requires an individual approach to comparing LCOE and determining economic feasibility.

Biomass thermal power plants require annual scheduled repairs, as well as the training and maintenance of a significant number of personnel, including highly qualified engineers. This is similar to the processes that take place at any thermal power plant in the conventional energy sector.

Benefits of  biomass energy for investors and local economy

Biomass thermal power plants have a number of parameters that make their development highly desirable both for business and for the energy system and for the economy as a whole.

The first of the benefits of such projects is considered to be a stable mode of operation. Thermal power plants on biomass and biogas generate a relatively stable amount of energy during the day and, unlike solar and wind energy, do not require replacement capacities. This is extremely important for developing agricultural countries, where the lack of flexible capacity is one of the potential barriers to renewable energy.

The development of the regional economy is also important. In this context, companies should develop the collection, delivery and preparation of organic waste (eg drying and crushing).

According to leading experts, the minimum distance between biomass TPPs should be 200–250 km, since the economically viable distance for the supply of organic waste for energy generation should not exceed 100–150 km.

In the solar and wind energy sectors, it is mainly based on imported equipment, but in the biomass energy sector, the share of the local component is extremely high.

The third benefit of such projects is, of course, the substitution of natural gas. For example, the Eastern European states, which are heavily dependent on imported hydrocarbons, can diversify their energy mix by financing biomass thermal power plants. Agricultural countries such as Poland or Ukraine annually produce several tens of millions of tons of agricultural biomass, in addition to millions of tons of logging residues.

Project financing for biomass energy projects

Financing is carried out through specially established financial structures with a high proportion of borrowed funds. Since lenders rely only on future profits from the sale of electricity and heat, the partners conduct an in-depth study of the risks at the stage of planning and preparation of financing.

The PF is applicable to large-scale projects involving the private or public sector, including the construction of thermal power plants using biomass and biogas.

Financing biomass energy projects is attractive if the deal is off the balance sheet and the sponsor’s creditworthiness remains unchanged.

The main disadvantage of the PF is the high cost of debt capital, which makes this scheme suitable only for large projects with strong cash flows sufficient to service the debt. It also implies the need for complex project structuring, including adequate collateral and insurance to mitigate risks.

Hereunder, project finance contracts structuring are below;

Construction contract: The key to success in EPC contracting is the experience of contractor, which largely determines the quality, adherence to schedule and the risk of cost overruns.

Administration Operations: maintenance of assets can lead to their failure, which will affect future cash flows, in addition to a direct impact on the life of the equipment and on project lifespan.

Supply contracts: Since biomass thermal power plants are highly dependent on the supply of fossil fuels from nearby farms, long-term contractual relationships with these suppliers are critical for future investment projects of this type of a take-or-pay basis, meaning the buyer’s obligation to pay whether the company currently needs the product or not.

Power Purchase Agreement (PPA): Contracts for the sale of electricity and heat will allow project participants to predict future cash flows and ensure their safety.

The sources of financing for such projects can be international financial institutions (EBRD, IFC, African Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank), commercial and state banks, credit unions, municipalities, government bodies, leasing companies, equipment manufacturers, agricultural producers, as well as various investment funds, willing to invest in biomass energy projects in exchange for participation in them through shares, warrants, convertible bonds, etc.

If you are looking for long-term financing for a major energy project, please contact CPUK Finance for advice.

Our team is ready to develop a customized investment solution for any project, taking into account your goals, business scale, tax incentives, as well as any restrictions and time frames.

Email:finance@cpuk-financeltd.com
Website:https://c-pfinanceuk.com/