NIB provide financing for new waste-to-energy plant in Finland

NIB has signed loan agreements with Vantaan Energia Oy and SEB Leasing Oy to finance the construction of a waste-to-energy plant in Vantaa, Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland.

The loan to Vantaan Energia Oy is €64 million with a maturity of 20 years. The loan to SEB Leasing Oy is €86 million with a maturity of 15 years.

The waste-to-energy (WtE) plant will be the first waste incineration plant in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. It will reduce the use of coal for electricity and heat production, and decrease the amount of mixed waste that ends up in landfill. Operations began at the plant in late 2014.

The new WtE plant is designed to burn approximately 340,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste a year with an overall annual efficiency of 95%. This can be expected to increase the value of waste in the region, which may lead to improved efficiency in the supply chain for waste.

The plant produces both electricity and heat. The annual capacity of electricity will be 600 GWh and that of district heating 920 GWh, which corresponds to about half of Vantaa’s annual heat requirements. New capacity in the region is much needed, as the demand for district heating is expected to grow until 2020. In addition, the new plant will replace one of the production units at the Martinlaakso power plant, which will come to the end of its service life by 2015.

Vantaan Energia Oy is one of Finland’s largest urban energy companies. The company produces electricity and district heating and is owned by the City of Vantaa (60%) and the City of Helsinki (40%).

SEB Leasing Oy is a wholly owned subsidiary of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), and the subsidiary is part of SEB Merchant Group.