OREANDA-NEWS. June 12, 2009. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced an investment of 18.85 million euros in the wind farm developer Freenergy AS.

The EBRD will acquire a 35 percent stake in Freenergy, supporting thereby the company's plans for further development of the existing wind farms and construction of new ones.

Member of Freenergy's supervisory board Kalle Kiigske told BNS that the EBRD, Freenergy and the owners of the latter concluded on Wednesday an agreement on expanding the company's capital.

The EBRD plans additional investments in Freenergy in the future. According to Kiigske, the work to take the European bank aboard has been underway for a year and a half.

Freenergy has at present 15 wind farm projects in hand whose development is directed by Nelja Energia OU. Eleven projects are situated in Estonia, three in Latvia and one in Lithuania.

The combined capacity of the completed wind farms will be 330 megawatts, nearly tripling the capacity of farms currently in operation in the Baltic states. They will cover around 3 percent of the Baltic countries' electricity demand.

Development of wind farms will reduce the Baltic states' dependence on imports and help them meet European Union requirements of renewable energy usage, the EBRD observed. The Freenergy wind farms will also help reduce the shortage of electricity after the shutdown of the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania.

Freenergy is owned by five Estonian enterprises.