Türkiye will auction 2,285 megawatts of new wind and solar capacity in early November, the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry said on Monday, as it presses ahead with plans to expand renewable power.
The competitions, held under the YEKA (Renewable Energy Resource Areas) model, allocate both project sites and grid connection capacity. Under YEKA, the state pre-selects areas and investors bid for the right to build there, usually in exchange for a guaranteed purchase price for a set period.
Wind on Nov. 2, solar on Nov. 3
The wind round, designated R26, will be held on Nov. 2 and covers 1,500 MW across seven sites: one in Sivas, four in Balıkesir, one in Manisa and one in Kütahya. Balıkesir, in the northwest, already hosts some of the country’s largest wind farms.
The solar round, G26, follows on Nov. 3 with 785 MW across 11 sites in Denizli, Ankara (two sites), Konya, Kahramanmaraş (two sites), Malatya, Diyarbakır, Mardin, Batman and Elazığ. Many of the solar sites are in the southeast and east, which receive some of Türkiye’s strongest sunshine.
Both auctions will take place at the ministry’s meeting hall in Ankara, starting at 10:00 local time.
Part of a wider energy push
Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has made renewables and domestic gas central to cutting Türkiye’s heavy import bill. The country recently sent its first floating gas production platform, Osman Gazi, to the Black Sea to double output from the Sakarya field, and is promoting LPG and autogas ahead of the COP31 climate summit, which Türkiye will host in Antalya next month.
YEKA auctions have attracted both Turkish groups and foreign developers, and large rounds are watched as a signal of investor appetite. A strong turnout would support the government’s target of significantly raising wind and solar capacity by 2035, which it says will also ease pressure on electricity prices.
For households, more domestic generation could eventually temper power bills, a key line in our cost of living guide.
Sources
Photo: Şadi Akdoğan / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
