German bank gives nearly a half billion euro for PV loans

Nearly a half billion euro – to be exact, €475 million ($611 million) – was provided by the Agricultural Pension Bank (Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank) last year in financing for PV systems in Germany. Another nearly €50 million ($64.5 million) was made available primarily for biomass systems. 

The total of €2.2 billion ($2.8 billion) in special credits for 2004 from the Frankfurt, Germany-based bank, a portion of which is used for investments in buildings or efforts to maintain villages, offer extremely attractive conditions with interest rates between 3 and 4 percent depending on duration. In 2004, statistics were gathered for renewable energy as an independent category for the first time, which means that one cannot compare stats from 2004 with those of earlier fiscal years. One can demonstrate, however, that demand continues to increase: in the first quarter of 2005, €140 million ($180 million) was spent on PV and biogas systems, which is an increase of nearly 100 percent when compared with the €75 million ($96.5 million) for the same period last year.

The bank already has plans to establish a new credit program entitled Environmental Protection and Sustainability, for which only investors in renewable energies as well as environmental protection efforts including improvement of conditions for farm animals will be eligible. This was announced by board spokesperson Uwe Zimpelmann at the end of April during a presentation of the bank's 2004 annual report. A more detailed description of the conditions is anticipated this summer.

Jochen Siemer
© PHOTON International, June 2005