AP Pension finances the development of solar parks in Southern Europe to the tune of millions

10 May 2023

AP Pension has just entered into a loan agreement with Eurowind Energy of 48 million euros. With the loan financing from AP Pension, Eurowind Energy can continue to work on the project to build solar parks in Portugal. The solar cell projects are expected to cover the electricity consumption of the equivalent of 35,000 households. AP Pension expects that the agreement will deliver a stable return to the company’s customers.

With loan financing of 48 million euros – approximately DKK 358 million – AP Pension has entered into an agreement with the Danish company Eurowind Energy, which can therefore continue to build solar parks in Portugal. Eurowind Energy already has a solar park in operation in the southern European country, but with the agreement with AP Pension, a further six parks are to be built during the coming year. The first steps towards construction have already been taken.

Investment director at AP Pension, Rasmus Cederholm, expects that the agreement will deliver a stable return for the benefit of the pension savers in the company.

– For AP Pension, the loan financing for Eurowind Energy is a long-term investment that will help deliver a stable return to our customers. At the same time, we are establishing a good partnership with Eurowind Energy, which can now put an additional turbo on their work to build a total of seven solar parks in Portugal for the benefit of the green transition. For AP Pension, the investment is also a step on the way to fulfilling our ambition to have invested 18 percent of the total assets green in 2025 and 25 percent in 2030, says Rasmus Cederholm, about the investment.

For AP Pension, this type of loan investment for green projects is the first of its kind and a rare sight in the pension sector.

– It is not often that we see this kind of loan financing directly for green projects in the pension sector, but we see it as an obvious investment opportunity where we get additional energy investments in the portfolio. Eurowind Energy has a lot of experience in their field, and we are convinced that it will be an investment that will benefit both parties and not least the green transition, which we would very much like to continue to contribute to through our investments , says the investment director.

It is expected that the seven solar parks in Portugal will be able to deliver an annual production of approximately 142,000 MWh, corresponding to the electricity consumption of approximately 35,000 households. A project like Eurowind Energy is delighted that AP Pension will be a part of it.

– With the agreement in place with AP Pension, we can now continue to work on the realization of our solar parks in Portugal. The project contributes to our ambition to significantly reduce the use of fossil energy in Europe. It is extremely positive that AP Pension can see the many good perspectives in financing part of our solar cell project in Portugal. It just confirms to us that it is a really good project that we are working on when a large financial investor like AP Pension will be responsible for the loan financing, says Benjamin Schmitt, head of project finance at Eurowind Energy.

Source: AP Pension