Turkish electrical company Enerjisa is taking its first steps towards meeting Turkey’s growing electricity demand with the help of a €135mn EBRD loan to build the country’s largest wind power plant.

Structured under the EBRD’s A/B loan scheme, the EBRD is providing the €100mn A loan, while the remaining B portion of the loan will be financed by commercial banks.

The EBRD was unable to name these commercial banks when contacted by GTR as the participation agreement is yet to be signed.

The loan will be used to construct the Enerjisa Bares WPP on-shore independent wind farm in Balikesir, western Turkey. The wind farm will consist of 52 wind turbines with a generation capacity of 142.5MW.

Once completed 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 1.8GW by approximately 8%.

Bernhard Raberger, Enerjisa’s chief financial officer, says: “We are aiming to increase the share of renewable energy sources in the portfolio of Enerjisa which aims to install a capacity of 5,000MW by 2015 to meet the electricity demand in Turkey. We have taken a strong step forward in the field of wind energy.”

Nandita Parshad, director of the power and energy utilities team at the EBRD adds: “The EBRD’s financing will help the country increase the share of renewable energy in its energy mix, providing a significant contribution towards Turkey’s green energy targets.”

Turkey is the sixth largest electricity market in Europe and one of the fastest growing globally. Increasing electricity generation from renewable energy sources and diversifying away from expensive imported fuel sources is one of the country’s top priorities. Turkey is aiming to produce 10GWof wind capacity by 2020.

This is the EBRD’s second wind farm loan in Turkey. In 2009 the bank provided a €45mn loan to Turkish energy group Zorlu Energy to finance the construction and development of a 135MW on-shore independent wind farm in Osmaniye, southern Turkey.