Türkiye’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources has awarded 800 MW of solar capacity in the latest round of its Yenilenebilir Enerji Kaynak Alanları (YEKA – Renewable Energy Resource Areas) program.

The projects will be set up in Konya, Karaman, Malatya, Van, Antalya, and Kütahya. Selected bidders can sell the electricity they produce in the free market for 60 months after signing the contract. The electricity generated thereafter will be fed into the transmission system at $0.0325/kWh for 20 years.

The projects aim to prevent the import of 300 million cubic meters of natural gas, equivalent to $3 billion considering the 20-year purchase process.

A total of 146 applications were received from 67 local and foreign companies. Legal entities established as joint stock or limited liability companies according to the Turkish Commercial Code and foreign companies with capital company status participated in the auction.

Alparslan Bayraktar, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, said the program involved a competitive process in which the government will invest approximately $500 million to generate 1.5 billion kWh of electricity annually, aiming to meet the electricity needs of 600,000 households.

Noting that the tenders were realized at an average price of $126,000/MW in six competitions, Bayraktar said, “Our electricity purchase guarantee was $0.0325/kWh. When you look at today’s market prices, it was realized at a price lower than half.”

The minister said the tenders prioritized domestic equipment production. We held the tenders with a minimum local content requirement of 75% in modules. Therefore, the modules to be used here will be produced in Türkiye.”

In March last year, Türkiye’s Ministry of Commerce issued an order regulating solar panel imports from Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Croatia, and Jordan. The move was intended to create a level playing field for domestic players.

According to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook published in November 2023, Türkiye accounted for around 1% of global solar manufacturing capacity.