ING Commercial Banking (ING CB) is shifting its European focus from financing natural gas plants to financing renewable energy projects, reports Business Recorder.
The main reason for this shift to offshore and onshore wind and solar power is the increased development of renewable energy projects in Europe as well as “overcapacity (in Europe’s power market) and as the economics for gas plants are simply not there,” said Therese Brouwer, Head of Structured Finance Utilities, Power, Renewables – EMEA at ING Bank.
The most attractive market is Germany, which is committed to meeting its 2020 climate targets by shifting to renewables.
The value of ING’s portfolio in onshore wind and solar projects was 50 million to 150 million euros, while offshore wind projects ranged between 600 million to 1.5 billion euros.
Besides Germany, ICN CB will focus on the Netherlands, Belgium and France which could have big offshore wind projects totaling to 3GW.
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Offshore WIND staff, September 16, 2013; Image: ingcb