The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a $110 million loan to Enerjisa Enerji A.S. in Türkiye to finance a comprehensive investment package that includes expanding the country’s electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure.
The proceeds of the loan will enable Enerjisa to modernise its electricity distribution network with efficient equipment and smart-grid applications and expand its EV charging infrastructure. The investments are part of a capital expenditure programme approved by the country’s energy regulator.
Esarj, one of Enerjisa’s subsidiaries, was one of Türkiye’s first EV charging companies and remains a key player in the field. Enerjisa, itself, is a major electricity distributor, serving a quarter of Türkiye’s population.
In addition to modernizing grid applications and expanding its EV charging network, the investment will allow Enerjisa to expand its distributed energy business through its Enerjisa Customer Solutions subsidiary, which provides sustainable and innovative energy solutions.
The loan was approved by the EBRD's Managing Director for Sustainable Infrastructure Group, Nandita Parshad, and Enerjisa Energy's CEO Murat Pınar, on Monday at the EBRD's London headquarters.
"This is the largest-ever financing for electric vehicle charging and distributed generation that the EBRD has sponsored anywhere in the world and thus it is groundbreaking for us," Parshad told Anadolu Agency (AA) after the approval.
She said while the financing is significant in terms of size but it is even more important as it supports environment-friendly transportation, which is relatively new but has a scope of being an essential sector in the future. The EBRD, Parshad said, has financed different renewable and clean energy projects in Türkiye but financing electric vehicle charging is pushing the bank's operations to the next level. "In a year, we tend to finance 1.5 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) equivalent in Türkiye and this $110 million is about 8% of what we do in a country in a year as a single transaction. We will learn a lot from this project," she stated.
Enerjisa Energy CEO Pınar said the renewable energy capacity growth worldwide in the next five years is set to be equal the growth achieved in the past 20 years.
"Türkiye is expected to increase its renewable capacity by about 65% in the next five years. The electric vehicle pool in Türkiye is anticipated to reach at least 2 million in 2030, similar to the global trend in the electric vehicle market. While leading this rapid transformation, it is of great significance to promptly carry out sustainable and efficient investments that prioritize technology," he said.
"Thus, we will increase our investments that enables us to offer solutions to our customers with renewable resources, expand the electric vehicle charging infrastructure and upgrade our electricity distribution network with more efficient and technological equipment as well as smart grid practices thanks to the financing we are supplied via this agreement with the EBRD," added Pinar.
Parshad said reaching net zero emissions, which a significant number of countries have committed to, needs increasing electrification and moving sources of electricity to renewable sources.
"Every country is going to have to double and triple the amount of electricity that it generates if they decarbonize their economies. Looking at a market as big as Türkiye and the energy transition that Türkiye needs to make. That electrification needs to be happening today," she said, adding that this is business growth and that electric vehicle infrastructure needs to be put in place first before people start buying electric cars.
"So it is an essential prerequisite for decarbonizing transport," Parshad underlined.
On the EBRD's new financing plans in Türkiye, she said the long-term strategy and focus in Türkiye is more renewables, electrification and more shift toward renewable sources of other sectors as 2023 marks a milestone for the EBRD in terms of all activities.
The bank pledged to ensure alignment of all its activities with the goals of the Paris Agreement by Jan. 1. As of the beginning of this year, the bank's investments from direct lending to providing indirect financing through financial institutions will be aligned and assessed according to the goals of Paris climate accord.
The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty adopted by 196 countries in 2015 in Paris. The goal of the agreement is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century.
Clean sources are now not only good for the climate but also the economic option in most economies.
"Investing in renewables is actually bringing costs down and improving infrastructure at a lower cost than before. I think that imperative to invest in greener and renewables will become an even stronger economic imperative going forward. The geopolitical challenges we have witnessed on the energy side also make renewables the most secure form of energy by far," she concluded.
The EBRD is active in 36 economies from Central Europe to Central Asia, the Western Balkans, and the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean.
The EBRD is a leading institutional investor Türkiye. Since 2009, the Bank has invested more than 16.9 billion pounds in various sectors of the country’s economy, almost all of it in the private sector.
