Lithuania’s Ignitis Group makes further bullish investments in wind

Lithuania’s Ignitis Group makes further bullish investments in wind
By Linas Jegelevicius in Vilnius July 22, 2020

Lithuania's state-run energy group Ignitis Grupe said on July 22 it is ready invest €80mn in a wind farm in the northwestern Lithuanian district of Mazeikiai.

Earlier this year the European Investment Bank (EIB) agreed to lend around €60mn for Ignitis’s other wind project in Poland, which includes construction and operation of a medium-sized onshore wind farm, consisting of 29 turbines, with a total installed capacity of 94 MW.

The Mazeikiai project is said to involve building infrastructure for the wind farm with a total capacity of 63 MW by the end of 2021 and up to 15 turbines by late 2022.

Kursasta, a Lithuanian construction firm, and other partners are carrying out the preparatory works under a contract worth €4.4mn. It is not known yet who will supply the equipment. 

In late 2018, Ignitis Grupe purchased VVP Investment, the developer of a wind farm project in the Mazeikiai district. The total investment in the company amounted to €1.962mn, according to the group's annual report for 2018.

Ignitis Grupe says that its companies currently own four operating wind farms with a total capacity of 58 MW, with another 18 MW farm operating in Estonia. The planned capacity of the group's Pomeranian wind farm under construction in Poland totals about 94 MW. The facility is expected to start commercial operations next year.

The state-owned group aims to expand its installed green energy generation capacity to 4 GW by 2030.

The wind park is located in the Pomeranian Voivodship in Poland is expected to be operational in the spring of 2021. The wind park has an expected capacity of 300 GWh of electricity, potentially supplying around 75,000 households with the clean energy generated by the project, on an annual basis.

Dominykas Tuckus, board member and head of business development at Ignitis Group, has said that sustainable development through the implementation of renewable energy projects not only in Lithuania but also abroad is top priority for the Ignitis Group in its Strategy 2030.

In the year’s first quarter, adjusted profit before the interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (adjusted Ebitda) of Ignitis Group, increased 8.8%, year-on-year, and totaled €85.1mn. The result was mainly affected by continued investments in distribution networks and efficient use of Kruonis PSHP.

“During the first quarter of this year, despite challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic, we continued the expansion abroad and actively invested in innovative energy-smart solutions. On January 1, Ignitis became one of the first players in the Finnish gas market, that was opened to competition and over the course of two weeks it became one of the largest Finland's alternative gas supplier. We also secured financing of the development of Pomerania Wind Farm in Poland, and the group's subsidiary Ignitis Gamyba started the installation of the largest 3 MW solar power plant in the Baltic States,” said Darius Maikstenas, chairman of the board and CEO of Ignitis Group.

The group's adjusted net profit increased to €48.8mn (€39.2mn in the Q1 2019). It was mostly driven by growth in adjusted Ebitda. Adjusted return on equity (12 months) was 8.7%.

The group’s revenue from foreign countries (Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Finland) increased by 39% and reached €8.1mn against €27.4mn in the Q1 2019.

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