TURKEY: The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development has added €500 million to its renewable energy fund in Turkey, increasing the total available to banks to €1.5billion. THe EBRD has added the money as part of the third stage of its mid-size sustainable energy financing facility (MidSEFF).
The fund offers Turkish banks loans and capital instruments to lend to private companies developing renewable energy or resource efficiency projects.
“The highly successful MidSEFF programme has already financed 43 projects through seven Turkish banks and has helped build over 800MW of additional renewable energy capacity,” said EBRD director of energy efficiency and climate change Terry McCallion. “This represents a major step for Turkey towards its goal of developing 30% of total installed capacity from renewable sources by 2023,” he added.
Since 2009, the EBRD has invested about €3 billion in more than 70 projects, including the 143MW Bares and 135MW Rotor wind projects, two of the country’s largest wind sites. In 2015, Turkey was the top destination for EBRD financing, with €1.9 billion invested in renewable energy, infrastructure, industry and finance in that year alone, the bank said.