Turkey has floated a tender for the fifth auction round of its Yenilenebilir Enerji Kaynak Alanları (YEKA) program to award 1.5 GW of solar capacity.

The bids must be submitted on January 12, 2022. The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources set a ceiling tariff of 0.40 Turkish Liras (TRY) (~$0.045)/kWh for the tender.

With this tender, Turkey expects to select 76 large-scale solar projects with capacities ranging from 10 MW to 30 MW across 23 regions.

To participate in the bidding process, bidders must submit TRY 5 million (~$564,674) for 10 MW capacity, TRY 10 million (~$1.13 million) for 20 MW capacity, and TRY 15 million (~$1.69 million) for 30 MW capacity as a letter of guarantee.

In May 2021, Turkey allocated 1 GW of solar capacity ranging from 10 MW to 20 MW.

Turkey has targeted a total solar capacity of 15 GW by 2027. The country is likely to meet the target a year earlier. It achieved the 5 GW capacity targeted by 2023 in 2018. In 2020, 98% of the installed power capacity was from renewable energy projects.

In February 2021, Turkey’s electricity generation from solar projects increased by 50% compared to the same period last year. The share of solar power in the country’s power mix has increased by 3.7% since it came online in 2002. Solar power accounts for 7.1% of the installed capacity, with the installed solar capacity reaching 6.8 GW. The country ranks third in Europe and ninth in the world in terms of installed solar power since 2014.

Mercom had earlier reported that Turkey opened a tender for 1 GW of wind power projects which are to be developed at four locations in the country. According to the Turkish Official Gazette, the government will procure power from these projects for a period of 15 years. The country plans to have 2 GW of wind energy by 2023.

In August 2020, Turkey inaugurated its integrated solar module manufacturing facility. The 500 MW solar ingot-wafer-module-cell production factory owned by Kalyon Holding will be operated through an investment of $400 million (Turkish Lira 2.9 billion).

Harsh Shukla is a staff reporter at Mercom India. Previously with Indian Express, he has covered general interest stories. He holds a Masters Degree in Journalism from Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune.

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