Enercon to build €50 million wind turbine blade factory in western Turkey

German wind turbine maker Enercon plans to build a €50 million ($58.5 million) rotor blade factory in Bergama, a district in the western province of İzmir, as Turkey seeks to expand wind power and produce more clean energy equipment at home.

The company announced the plan at the 15th Turkish Wind Energy Congress, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency. The factory is expected to employ around 700 people directly, with additional jobs expected through suppliers in the region.

Enercon is targeting a fourth-quarter 2026 opening. In its first phase, the plant is expected to produce up to 150 rotor blade sets a year. Output will go to Turkish customers first, with exports to Eastern and Southern Europe planned later.

Heiko Juritz, Enercon’s chief operating officer and a member of its management board, said the Bergama plant would help the company meet local content rules in Turkey’s onshore wind tenders. He put Enercon’s employment target in Turkey at more than 1,000 people.

Juritz said Turkey remains one of Enercon’s most important strategic markets and that producing components for the E-175 EP5 E2 model in the country reflected the company’s long-term view of the market.

The E-175 EP5 E2 is Enercon’s new flagship onshore turbine. It has a 7-megawatt rated capacity and a 175-meter rotor diameter, putting it among the larger onshore turbines in Europe. Enercon recently signed Turkish supply deals covering more than 370 megawatts, according to Anadolu.

Enercon says it has installed more than 65 gigawatts of capacity worldwide, with its installed capacity in Turkey reaching 4 gigawatts.

The factory announcement comes as Turkey works to expand wind and solar capacity. The Energy and Natural Resources Ministry’s 2035 renewable energy roadmap sets a target of 120,000 megawatts of combined wind and solar capacity, roughly four times the installed base when the plan was announced. Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said reaching that figure will require close to $80 billion in investment.

To get there, Turkey needs to add at least 7,500 to 8,000 megawatts of new wind and solar capacity every year. The ministry also plans annual tenders of at least 2,000 megawatts under the Renewable Energy Resource Zone (YEKA) model.

Turkey’s wind sector had its strongest year on record in 2025, according to figures from the Turkish Wind Energy Association, adding 2,141 megawatts and bringing total installed wind capacity to 15,934 megawatts as of January 2026, a 15.5 percent increase from the previous year.

The Marmara region leads in installed wind capacity with 6,968 megawatts, followed by the Aegean region with 4,495 megawatts. Bergama is located in the Aegean region, one of Turkey’s main areas for wind generation and equipment manufacturing.

Turkey’s total installed electricity capacity stood at 125,078 megawatts at the end of March 2026, according to the energy ministry. Wind accounted for 12 percent of installed capacity, while solar accounted for 21.2 percent.

Generation figures, however, show a different picture from installed capacity. Coal produced 33.6 percent of Turkey’s electricity in 2025, followed by natural gas at 23 percent, according to Energy Ministry data. Wind supplied 10.9 percent and solar 10.5 percent.

The 2035 roadmap ties wind and solar expansion to reducing external energy dependence, improving supply security and supporting Turkey’s 2053 net-zero emissions target.

The ministry’s roadmap also identifies local production of wind equipment, including towers, blades and generators, as part of the industrial base needed to support faster renewable deployment. İzmir and the surrounding Aegean region already form one of the country’s main wind equipment supply centers.

Enercon’s Bergama plant gives the company a local production base for a turbine it is selling in Turkey and gives Ankara another manufacturing investment tied to the local content rules behind its renewable energy tenders.