French investment manager Rivage Investment, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Norwegian pension fund Kommunal Landspensjonskasse (KLP) have together provided €300 million (US$334 million) in debt financing to Estonia-based renewable energy producer Sunly. The fresh funding will help to strengthen energy security and supercharge renewable projects in the Baltics and Poland, supporting the construction of 1.3 gigawatts (GW) of solar, wind, storage and hybrid parks across the region. Rivage used infrastructure debt fund REDI HR2 for the investment, while CIP invested through its Green Credit Fund I. Additional participation from KLP was made through funds managed by CIP. The funding round comes amid ongoing efforts from the EU to reduce dependence on Russian gas, with the Baltic states and Poland particularly exposed to price fluctuations and supply disruptions. An upcoming desynchronisation from the Russian and Belarusian electricity grid in February next year, however, should stimulate regional energy independence and security. Sunly has received €765 million in capital support to date, with previous backers including French asset manager Mirova and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Upcoming projects for Sunly include a 244-megawatt (MW) solar park in Estonia that will be expanded to include onshore wind turbines and battery storage, as well as the construction of four solar parks in Latvia with a combined capacity of 553MW. The 1.3GW portfolio should also include several large hybrid solar parks in Lithuania and Poland, to be built by end-2026. “We are yet again pleased to be invited as a co-investor in a renewable energy project in Poland and the Baltics through our longstanding relationship with CIP,” said Oliver Siem, Director of Investments and Operations at KLP. “This is one of many steps in reaching our goal of being Paris-aligned by 2050.”
