DRI secures EUR 60 million loan from UniCredit and Garanti BBVA for the construction of Vacaresti solar park in Romania
DRI, the EU renewables arm of DTEK, together with UniCredit and Garanti BBVA, have signed an agreement for non-recourse loans of up to EUR 60 million equivalent (c.EUR 56m + RON 22m VAT facility) to finance the construction and operations of the Vacaresti solar park in Romania.
The loan is inclusive of a long-term, fully amortizing construction and term loan, VAT, Debt Service Reserve Facility, and LC facilities. The loan structure is aligned with Green Loan Principles and the EU Taxonomy Alignment Criteria, which serves as a cornerstone of the EU’s sustainable finance framework and a key tool for market transparency, by providing clear guidelines for direct investments that support the green transition in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal.
The loan supports construction of the Vacaresti solar park located in Dambovita County, with an installed capacity of 126MWp, enough to power about 50,000 households* and avoid 48,600 tonnes of carbon emissions per year**. The construction of the Vacaresti solar park began in January 2025 and the project is expected to be operational in autumn this year.
From January 2027 DRI will sell 50% of the production from Vacaresti solar park to OMV Petrom S.A., the largest integrated energy producer in Southeastern Europe, as part of Romania’s largest physical solar power purchase agreement (“PPA”) signed last December.
Ivan Geliukh, CEO of DRI, said: “With the signing of this project financing agreement we have reached another important milestone: this is DRI’s first internationally led syndicated financing, our first certified green loan, and our first multi-currency loan. This is an important achievement not only for DRI but also for Romania as this will contribute to further development of renewables in the Country. With this project, we are demonstrating our capability to partner with a globally renowned financial institutions like UniCredit, and with Garanti BBVA, one of Romania’s leading local lenders”.
In Romania, DRI has three operational projects, totaling 173MWp: the two solar parks, Glodeni I and Glodeni II for a combined installed capacity of 113MWp, forming one of the largest renewable energy sites in the country, and the 60MW Ruginoasa wind farm, which was built in just 10 months and was the first to have been constructed in the Country in a decade.
Across its priority markets, DRI now boasts a 1.3GW portfolio of projects across operation, construction and other stages of development.
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* based on Statista, Electricity consumption for households in Romania 2017-2022, by consumption bands
** based on Statista, Carbon intensity of the power sector in the European Union in 2021