Bayreuth (dpa/lby) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) is supporting the expansion of the Ostbayernring power line. The network operator Tennet will be granted a senior loan of 450 million euros, the bank and Tennet announced on Wednesday. The project includes the expansion of the 185-kilometer route between Redwitz (Lichtenfels district) and Schwandorf in the Upper Palatinate. The Ostbayernring is part of the nationwide network development plan.
Along the route, significantly more electricity is often generated from wind power and photovoltaics than is consumed on site. In the future, this energy could then be transported to large consumption centers, it said. Without the expansion, the Ostbayernring could no longer meet the criteria for security of supply in the long term. Therefore, the transmission capacity must be increased.
Tennet put the total cost of the project at around one billion euros.
According to the EIB, the expansion of the Ostbayernring meets the criteria of the EU taxonomy because it supports the feeding in of electricity from renewable energies.
The route expansion is not without controversy, especially in the municipalities along the route, there has been resistance for years.
