04/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - EIB loan to improve energy efficiency in electricity generation and emissions reduction. The European Investment Bank (EIB) decided on 2 October to lend RusHydro €100 million (4 billion roubles) to support the modernisation of power and heat generation technology in Vladivostok. The project is part of a larger programme to bring natural gas to Russia's far east, enabling a switch from coal to natural gas as the primary energy source and reducing CO2 emissions. The loan - the first ever to be extended by the EIB in Russian roubles - will finance the installation of three new state-of-the-art combined heat and power gas turbine units, which will increase electricity and heat production and bring environmental and energy efficiency performance into line with best practice. (OL/transl.fl)