Evli and Nordic Shine establish solar power investment fund
Finnish Evli Bank is now the majority shareholder in Finnish solar firm Nordic Shine, and the two companies have created the country's first solar investment fund. The fund, EAI SOLAR I limited partnership, aims to boost take-up of solar in Finland, with the opportunity for home-owners and tenants to invest in distributed solar projects for modest amounts of capital. Evli Alternative Investments Managing Director Tero Tuominen said that solar utilisation had been hampered by a lack of financing alternatives and that the fund offered a new finance model for distributed power production, substantially increasing solar investment.

Solar has yet to take off in Finland. A handful of rooftop systems and community solar projects make up the entire market, but with Finland’s first ever solar investment fund for distributed solar being launched, solar deployment may be about to pick up.

The fund, EAI SOLAR I limited partnership, is being launched by Evli and Nordic Shine, and will offer property owners and tenants the opportunity to invest in distributed solar projects without releasing too much of their own capital. It is also open to investors, who are seeking a stable return on solar investments.

With existing experience in the market, Nordic Shine will take care of operation and maintenance of the PV arrays throughout the contract period. Major Finnish property management firm, Ovenia Group, has already agreed to offer the fund’s model to its clients.

“Our service model enables transparent allocation of the benefits of solar power between the tenant and the owner regardless of property’s lease agreement type,” said Nordic Shine’s partner Jussi Vimpari.

Popular content The aim of the fund is simple, it wants to increase solar deployment in Finland, and offer the public a means to adopt the clean energy technology. On top of that, it believes that distributed solar systems will help property owners reduce electricity costs, and reduce their environmental impact. “The utilization of solar power in Finland has been slowed down by lack of financing alternative,” commented Evli Alternative Investments Managing Director Tero Tuominen. “The fund offers a new finance and service model for distributed power production, which has substantially accelerated solar power investments.” Community PV projects already makes up a substantial 13% of Finland’s entire solar power production. Outside of that, utility-scale PV is non-existent, as the largest installation to date is just 850 kW. However, this new fund is a step in the right direction, and may begin a trend of solar adoption within the country. This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com. Share Sam Pothecary Sam joined pv magazine in 2016, primarily to manage the magazine's online presence. As well as writing and editing articles for the daily news section, he reports on the global solar industry and climate policies for the magazine. More articles from Sam Pothecary Related content Elsewhere on pv magazine... By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment. Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so. You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled. Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.