Brazil’s development bank boosted financing for wind power 83 percent last year, and it expects to approve more loans this year.

BNDES approved 6.6 billion reais ($2.5 billion) in loans for wind projects last year, adding 2,585 megawatts of new installed capacity, it said in an e-mailed statement today.

“Approvals will keep growing strongly in 2015,” Antonio Carlos Tovar, the agency’s head of renewable energy, said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro on Jan. 12. “The sector has been experiencing high demand, with many projects contracted in recent auctions.”

BNDES, formally Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico & Social, was the world’s leading arranger of asset finance loans for clean energy last year, with 24 deals worth a total of $2.7 billion, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That accounted for 7.8 percent of the market, more than Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., which had 34 deals worth $2.03 billion and a 5.8 percent share.

In December, BNDES approved 1.7 billion reais in loans for 22 wind parks, with 590 megawatts of capacity.