The EBRD is promoting renewable energy in Turkey with a €135 million loan to Enerjisa for the construction of a new wind farm in the country.

Turkey is the sixth largest electricity market in Europe, and one of the fastest growing globally. Increasing electricity generation from renewable energy sources is one of the country’s priorities in order to meet the growing electricity demand and diversify away from expensive, imported fuel sources. Turkey is aiming to connect to the grid 10 GW of wind capacity alone by 2020.

Jointly owned by Haci Omer Sabanci Holding A.S. and Verbund International Gmbh, Enerjisa is the leading privately owned Turkish energy company active in electricity generation, trading, wholesale and distribution.

The proceeds of the EBRD loan will be used to build Enerjisa Bares WPP, an on-shore independent wind farm in Balikesir in western Turkey. Enerjisa Bares WPP will consist of 52 wind turbines and will have a generation capacity of 142.5 MW.

Upon its completion, expected in the second half of 2012, Enerjisa Bares WPP will become Turkey’s largest wind farm to date, increasing Turkey’s current installed wind generation capacity of around 1.8 GW by approximately 8 per cent.

The EBRD financing is structured under the Bank’s A/B loan scheme, with €100 million on EBRD’s account and the rest for the account of commercial banks.

“Supporting investments in renewable energy is one of the EBRD’s key priorities in Turkey. The EBRD’s financing will help the country to increase the share of renewable energy in its energy mix, providing a significant contribution towards Turkey’s green energy targets. Additionally, we are very pleased to be working with such reputable and experienced sponsors as Verbund and Sabanci who have a high demonstration impact in the Turkish power sector.” said Nandita Parshad, Director of Power and Energy Utilities team at EBRD.

Bernhard Raberger, Enerjisa CFO said, “We are targeting to increase the share of renewable energy sources in the portfolio of Enerjisa which aims to install a capacity of 5.000 MW by2015, in order to meet the electricity demand in Turkey in the most reliable and environmentally-friendly manner. We have taken a strong step forward in the field of wind energy with Enerjisa Bares WPP.” Raberger stated that this is one of the important agreements that finance the growth strategy of Enerjisa and he thanked to the EBRD for their trust and belief in Enerjisa.

This is the EBRD’s second wind farm in Turkey. In 2009 the Bank provided €45 million to finance the construction and development of a 135 MW on-shore independent wind farm, in Osmaniye, in southern Turkey. The EBRD has also provided €375 million through five Turkish banks for the financing of mid-sized reneweable energy projects, which includes the financing of a significant amount of wind farm investment.

Since the beginning of the EBRD’s operations in Turkey, the Bank has invested over €1.5 billion in various sectors of the country’s economy, mobilising additional investment in excess of €3 billion.