“Rietumu banka” allocates one million euros to the solar power plant in Aiviekste parish

“Rietumu banka” has allocated EUR 1 million in financing for the development of SIA “Spridzēnu HES” solar energy park and hydroelectric power plant in Aiviekste parish, Aizkraukle district, bank representatives inform.

The solar panels of the new power plant with a total capacity of 1.5 megawatts (MW) and a production capacity of 1.2 MW are located next to one of Latvia’s hydroelectric power plants, located on the Aiviekste River. Therefore, the ways of obtaining energy in this place will be diversified and its extraction will be significantly increased.

“Rietumu banka” has provided the necessary refinancing for the future operation of this solar energy and HPP project.

When choosing the location of a new solar park, seasonality is taken into account, which is an essential aspect for the production of renewable energy, that is, sunlight, as well as the water level in rivers in Latvia, are drastically different in different seasons, therefore the solar park will organically complement the HPP potential of the existing river.

The hydroelectric plant, which also has its own fishway, has an average production of more than 5,000 megawatt hours (MWh) per year. On the other hand, the planned development of solar electricity is 1000-1500 MWh per year.

“Spridzenu HES” started its operation in 2002 and 20 years later, in 2022, a decision was made to promote the development of green energy and expand the company’s operations by building a solar energy park. Construction works for the implementation of the project will be completed in 2023.

In 2022, “Spridzenu HES” worked with a turnover of 660,984 euros and suffered a loss of 384,780 euros, according to “Firmas.lv” information. The financial results for 2023 have not yet been published.

The share capital of “Spridzenu HES” is 200,000 euros. The owners of the company are SIA “Satvari” (79.89%), whose largest owner is Māris Štrombergs and Sandra Ankrava (20.11%).

The audited profit of “Rietumu banka” last year was 12.534 million euros, which is 34.4% less than in 2022, at the same time, the profit of the “Rietumu banka” group decreased by 2.5% last year and was 17.013 million euros.

“Rietumu banka” is the fifth largest bank in Latvia in terms of assets. The largest shareholders of the bank are SIA “Esterkin Family Investments” (33.12%), Maltese company “Boswell (International) Consulting Limited” (33.11%), as well as SIA “Suharenko Family Investments” (17.34%). The sole owner of “Esterkin Family Investments” is Leonid Esterkin, and the sole owner of “Suharenko Family Investments” is Arkadiy Suharenko.