AS SEB Pank, AS Swedbank and OP Corporate Bank have provided syndicated financing for the Latvian phase of the Lode hybrid wind and battery park, developed by Utilitas Wind near the Latvia-Estonia border. Law firm COBALT advised the three lenders on the deal.
The financed phase combines a 117-megawatt wind farm, 18 Vestas turbines rated at 6.5 megawatts each, with a 60-megawatt battery storage system holding 240 megawatt-hours of capacity. Utilitas puts the investment at approximately €200 million. Once operational, the company expects the wind farm to generate about 330 gigawatt-hours a year, enough to cover the annual electricity use of more than 110,000 households.
The site sits near Lode, in Latvia’s Valmiera municipality, close to the Estonian border, and connects to the 330-kilovolt line linking the two countries’ grids. Utilitas says the added generation and storage will help balance the Baltic power system and support its integration of renewable energy.
The financing covers only the Latvian half of a bigger buildout. Utilitas’ own project page describes a combined Latvian-Estonian project reaching up to 200 megawatts, an investment of up to €310 million and annual generation of up to 599 gigawatt-hours once an Estonian phase near Penuja, in Saarde municipality, is commissioned, a date the company puts at around 2030 or 2031. Part of that wider project draws on two grants under the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility Energy programme, one for balance-of-plant infrastructure and one for turbine delivery.
Construction on the Latvian side began August 6, according to Utilitas, with commercial operation targeted for early 2028. Verston Eesti is building access and connection roads, Connecto Latvija is handling cabling, and AIMASA is pouring turbine foundations.
COBALT’s team on the lender side was led by partners Edgars Lodziņš and Toms Sulmanis, with specialist counsel Andrejs Lielkalns and Mārtiņš Tarlaps, senior associates Alise Artamonova and Inga T., and junior associate Kate Bīrzgale.
