The Law No. 5346 on the Utilization of Renewable Energy Resources for the Purpose of Generating Electrical Energy was amended on 8 January 2011. The amended Law No. 5346 envisages bonus tariffs for the license holder legal entities that use locally produced mechanical and/or electro-mechanical components in renewable energy facilities. Such bonus tariffs differ according to the type of the renewable energy and the component manufactured from USD 0.004 to 0.024 per kWh for a five-year term from the operation date of plants provided that they start producing energy before the end of 2015 and they are registered in the Renewable Energy Support Mechanism defined in the Law No. 5346 (Please see our article on "Turkey: Incentives for Renewable Energy" published on 28 April 2011 on Mondaq). As an implementing regulation, the regulation on the Local Manufacture of the Components Used in the Generation of Electricity from Renewable Energy Resources (the "Regulation") was published in the official gazette numbered 27969 and dated 19 June 2011.

The Regulation stipulates principles, standards and certification processes regarding locally manufactured mechanical and/or electro-mechanical components. As per the Regulation the locally manufactured components should have the following documents:

  • Manufacture Status Document which shows that the component is manufactured in Turkey which will be prepared by a certified public accountant and certified by the Chamber of Industry and/or Chamber of Commerce and Industry with which the system supplier or component supplier is affiliated. The duration of this document is five years as of the issuing date.
  • Manufacture Certificate which shows that the component is compatible with the international or national standards. The certificate must be prepared by an international accrediting agency which signed a mutual recognition agreement with International Accreditation Forum (IAF) according to the TS EN 45011 "General Standards for the Certification Institutions which Perform Product Certification".

The aforementioned documents should be obtained by the component supplier or the system supplier from the relevant authorities and be submitted to the license holder legal entity which purchases the component from the component supplier or the system supplier. The license holder legal entity which aims to benefit from the bonus tariffs regarding the locally manufactured components must submit such documents to the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (the "Ministry") or another institution commissioned by the Ministry.

A commission composed by the Ministry authorities, representatives of the license holder and constructor of the plant shall control whether a component used in the plant has a Manufacture Status Document during the provisional acceptance of the plant. Within 15 days following such control, the Ministry shall inform the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (the "EMRA") on the bonus tariff to be applied to the license holder legal entity for the locally manufactured component.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.