TPI Composites Inc., a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based supplier of wind turbine blades and other composite structures, and ALKE INSAAT, an Istanbul, Turkey-based engineering, manufacturing and construction company, have formed a joint venture (JV) company in Izmir, Turkey, to manufacture large composite wind turbine blades.
The new joint venture, TPI Kompozit Kanat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., will commence operations immediately from a 355,000 square-foot building in Izmir. With convenient access to both land and water transportation, the facility is located to serve the Turkish wind market and to cost-effectively export blades to southern and eastern Europe and northern Africa, according to TPI Composites.
TPI Kompozit will provide blades to key customers based on multiyear commitments. The JV will initially employ 350 people, with the opportunity to triple the number of employees as the wind energy market in Turkey and eastern Europe expands.
Turkey's new feed-in-tariff, which includes incentives for local content, combined with attractive merchant market electricity prices, is supporting growth in the country's wind energy market. Energy experts predict that Turkey's wind power market may add 500 MW to 1,000 MW per year, reaching more than 5 GW by 2015. It is estimated that Turkey will install up to 20 GW by 2023, helping the country to source 30% of its electricity generation from renewable sources of energy by that time.
