Türkiye will hold its second round of renewable energy capacity allocation tenders this year, offering 2,000 megawatts (MW) for new wind and solar power plants in November and December, a top official said on Friday.
Of that, 1,150 MW will be allocated for wind projects and 850 MW for solar, in line with the government's annual target of adding 2,000 MW of renewable capacity, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said.
The auction will again be conducted through an open reverse-bidding method based on a guaranteed electricity purchase price, Bayraktar told the Turkish Wind Energy Congress in the Aegean province of Izmir.
The guaranteed electricity purchase agreements will be priced in euros rather than U.S. dollars. The bidding will start at 55 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh), with floor prices set at 35 euros for wind and 32.5 euros for solar.
Türkiye currently has around 36,000 MW of installed wind and solar capacity, and aims to quadruple that figure by 2035. To achieve this, the government plans to hold capacity allocation tenders of 2,000 MW each year.
The first round of tenders, held under the Renewable Energy Resource Zone (YEKA) auction mechanism in January and February, awarded 1,200 MW for wind and 800 MW for solar projects.
Winners gained the right to sell electricity they produce on the free market for five to six years, before supplying the public grid under long-term contracts for 20 years. In those tenders, denominated in dollars, prices settled at the floor level and developers agreed to pay an additional $220 million contribution fee to the ministry.
As of June, Türkiye's total installed power generation capacity stood at nearly 120,000 MW, with 19% from solar and 11% from wind.
However, due to their intermittent nature, these power plants operate below their installed capacity. According to data from the regulatory authority, solar and wind power plants accounted for 10% and 11% of total electricity production, respectively, in the first half of the year.
As part of the November-December tenders, a total of six wind projects, ranging in size from 110 MW to 500 MW, will be developed in the provinces of Sivas, Balıkesir, Aydın, Denizli and Kütahya.
Solar projects will be spread across Elazığ, Kahramanmaraş, Erzurum, Bolu, Eskişehir, Mardin and Van, with nine auctions for projects ranging from 40 MW to 260 MW.
Türkiye has limited oil and natural gas resources and suffers from a high current account deficit due to vast energy imports. It has been incentivizing private sector investments in renewable power plants since 2005 to reduce its high import bill and insulate itself from geopolitical risks.
While Türkiye's electricity consumption has tripled in the last two decades, it is expected to increase even faster in the coming years due to the long-term energy transformation, which involves replacing fossil fuel energy with electricity.
The YEKA scheme was introduced in 2016 to facilitate land allocation for investors, ease the deployment of large projects and encourage the domestic production of renewable energy technologies.
The government unveiled updates to the model in 2024 to draw greater investor interest. Key enhancements included simplifying post-tender permitting procedures and introducing financial incentives like exemptions from transmission fees.
Bayraktar on Friday said a legal amendment to the Turkish Coastal Law last year paved the way for renewable energy plants to be built in seas, reservoirs, artificial lakes and natural lakes.
Under this framework, the first auction for a floating solar power plant will also be held, with 35 MW of capacity allocated for the installation of the plant on the reservoir of the Demirköprü hydroelectric dam in the western province of Manisa.