The renewable energy sector in Europe would have been in dire straits over the last two and a half years, were it not for the role public sector development banks have played in financing many of the biggest projects.

With commercial banks struggling to lend as much as they did before the 2007-08 financial crisis, development banks raised their game to compensate. The European Investment Bank, for instance, lifted its lending to renewable energy projects from $1.4bn in 2008 to $5.4bn in 2010, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance data.

Last week, development banks were taking a high profile once again, playing important roles in providing finance for a German offshore wind project, and for two large onshore wind developments in a relatively high-risk but fast-growing renewable power market, Romania.

The offshore wind deal saw leading private equity firm Blackstone Group secure financing for a EUR 1.2bn (USD 1.7bn) project in the German North Sea.

The 288-megawatt Meerwind project southwest of Helgoland will be capable of supplying 400,000 homes. KfW was joined in the transaction by the Danish export credit agency, EKF, and by a group of commercial banks led by Commerzbank, Banco Santander and Lloyds Banking Group.

The banks are together supplying debt amounting to EUR 822m, with the remainder of the project cost made up of equity from Blackstone. Meerwind is the first beneficiary of a EUR 5bn loan programme the government introduced through KfW in June.

Back onshore, the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s private-sector lending unit, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development are each loaning EUR 36.7m to Pestera Power, a wind company majority owned by a Romanian unit of EDP Renovaveis, the Portuguese clean energy developer.

The institutions will also each lend EUR 57.4m to fund the Cernavoda I and II wind parks, majority held by the local unit of EDP.

The IFC and the EBRD are syndicating EUR 50m of the total loans to commercial banks. An IFC executive told Bloomberg News that the commercial banks were sceptical about Romania “but as time went on everyone could sense that the sector was ready to take-off”.”We like to do strategic investments in one way or another that transform the market,” the IFC executive said. Pestera and Cernavoda are in Dobrogea region and jointly form one of Romania’s largest wind farms, at 228MW.

Also in Romania last week, Enel Green Power, the renewables offshoot of giant Italian utility Enel, said that it is in line to receive EUR 200m in funding from the EIB to build three wind farms.Last month the European Commission cleared Romania’s programme to support renewable energy developments including wind energy and solar plants.

Green certificates, worth EUR 27.70 to EUR 56.10, are granted to producers of electricity from clean sources for each MWh generated.Enel Green Power’s three Romanian onshore wind farms will be located in the regions of Dobrogea and Banat, with a total installed capacity of 258MW.

The farms will be equipped with 126 turbines, each with a capacity ranging from 2MW to 2.3MW.Romania is considered one of the most promising renewable energy markets in Europe, reflecting its good wind resources and its need to build additional power capacity.

The perceived risks for developers, and banks, include uncertainty over future policy, exchange rates and the planning regime. One large project in Romania, in the Constanta area, last summer witnessed angry demonstrations from locals over a permitting dispute, and this caused a temporary halt to construction work by the developer, Czech utility CEZ. Work eventually resumed.