The EIB will provide a EUR 125m 8 year loan to finance construction and connection of the new EUR 322m plant, alongside an existing power plant complex.
The new natural gas fuelled plant will enable shut down of all except one of Greece’s lignite power plants by 2023, says EIB. Lignite installed capacity is currently 4 GW in Greece, 22% of the total.
The new plant will also provide flexibility to accommodate renewables and increased network interconnection between mainland Greece and the islands.
It will produce 320 gCO2/kWh, meeting the EIB’s emissions performance standard of 550 gCO2/kWh in place when the project was approved.
Since then, the EIB has introduced a new lending policy under which it will no longer entertain financing for unabated fossil fuel projects, including gas, from the end of 2021 onwards, and also establishing a new emissions performance standard of 250 gCO2/kWh.
