DRI secures €60m green loan for Romanian Vacaresti solar project

• DRI, DTEK’s EU renewables arm, arranged up to €60m in syndicated, taxonomy-aligned green financing from UniCredit and Garanti BBVA to complete the 126-MWp Vacaresti solar farm in Romania.

DRI, the European renewables arm of Ukraine’s DTEK group, has lined up non-recourse financing of up to EUR 60 million to complete its 126-MWp Vacaresti solar project in Romania’s Dambovita County. The package was arranged with UniCredit and Garanti BBVA and combines a long-term construction and term loan with VAT financing in Romanian lei, a debt service reserve and letter-of-credit facilities.

According to DRI, the deal is structured as a certified green loan aligned to both the Green Loan Principles and the EU Taxonomy—an approach that is becoming the default for bankable European PV projects. It is also the company’s first internationally led syndicated financing, as well as its first multi-currency loan, underscoring DRI’s push to scale in priority EU markets.

Construction at Vacaresti began in January 2025 and commissioning is slated for this autumn. Once online, the plant is expected to generate enough electricity to supply roughly 50,000 households. Revenue visibility is supported by a physical power purchase agreement with OMV Petrom, under which the oil-and-gas major will offtake half of the site’s output from 2027. DRI describes it as Romania’s largest physical solar PPA to date, reflecting the maturing appetite among Romanian corporates for long-tenor renewable contracts.

For lenders, the structure offers familiar risk mitigants—non-recourse terms, a DSRA, and VAT bridge—while meeting increasingly stringent sustainability screens. For DRI, the financing diversifies its capital base and should help accelerate delivery of a broader pipeline.

The Vacaresti project adds to DRI’s existing Romanian fleet of two solar plants and one wind farm totaling 173 MWp. Across its core markets, the company is developing around 1.3 GW of renewables, positioning it to benefit from Romania’s grid upgrades and growing corporate demand for green power.