Turkey’s energy ministry will by January 21 collect initial bids for the building and operating of five wind plants with a combined capacity of 1,200 MW under  the YEKA RES-2024 (Renewable Energy Source Areas, Wind Power Plants-2024) round, the Official Gazette showed on October 28.

The auction will be held on January 28.

The winners will be awarded grid connections for 49 years, with a minimum price set at $0.0495/kWh during the first six years long open market sale period and a guaranteed price that will be set in line with the winning bids in the auctions for another 20 years.

The sixth year open market phase will begin when the final contracts are signed. The plants are supposed to come online within the next three years.

In the last 23 years of the specified period, the operators of the plants will sell their output on the market.

Chart: Contracts.

The bids at the auctions will be placed in the $0.035/kWh and $0.055/kWh range.

The energy ministry will also soon launch a 800-MW solar tender. It is planning to hold the auction on February 4.

Turkey plans to hold 2-GW YEKA tenders every year.

YEKA tenders in Turkey

The first YEKA tender, namely YEKA GES-1 (solar), was held in 2017. In May 2023, the 1.35-GW Karapinar solar plant came online.

So far, 3.3 GW of solar capacity has been extended via a total of four YEKA GES tenders. In May 2022, the 1.3-GW YEKA GES-5 tender was delayed.

Meanwhile, 2.85 GW of wind capacity has been extended via three YEKA RES tenders. In June 2022, 850 MW of capacity was extended via the YEKA RES-3 tender.

Offshore wind

In 2018, the government launched a YEKA DRES-1 (Renewable Energy Source Areas, Offshore Wind Power Plants-1) tender for construction of the country’s first offshore wind plants.

A 1.2-GW capacity and $0.8 per kWh purchase guarantee for 50 TWh of electricity was offered for plants to be built in Gelibolu, Saros and Kiyikoy districts located in the Dardanelles region.

However, the tender was later cancelled.

According to the World Bank, the country has a 12-GW fixed offshore wind potential in addition to 57 GW of floating potential, 69 GW in total.

By 2035, the government intends to launch 5 GW of offshore capacity.

In June 2023, the energy ministry launched a tender for the delivery of site investigations as well as consultancy services for a trio of development zones in the Sea of Marmara.

In August 2023, the energy ministry said that studies were taking place off the coasts at Bandirma, Gelibolu (Gallipoli) and Karabiga in the Sea of Marmara and next to the island of Bozcaada in the Aegean Sea. The plan is to place them in the YEKA scheme.

The ministry has also identified six possible locations for onshore wind farms in Konya province, as well as three sites in Sivas and two in Corum and Sanliurfa for solar parks.

In October 2023, Turkey obtained an €8mn grant from the EU under the Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) Energy Sector Program Phase IV Project - Offshore Wind Support scheme.

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), a unit of the World Bank Group, is the project administrator. Turkey is to use the funding to determine eligible offshore wind plant sites and to launch tenders for investors.

On October 14, 2024, Turkey’s energy ministry awarded a €3mn contract to a consortium set by International Marine and Dredging Consultants (IMDC), Engie Impact Belgium, U-Sens and Akrocean for meteorological and oceanographic measurement studies for the development of offshore wind sites.

YEKDEM prices

Under a feed-in-tariff (FiT) programme, known as the Renewable Energy Support Mechanism (YEKDEM), introduced in 2011, wind, hydropower, geothermal, biomass and solar plants successfully brought online by end-June 2021 were provided with feed-in tariffs for a 10-year period. The support for wind plants was fixed at $0.073 per kWh.

In 2021, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, introduced a new scheme with Turkish lira-denominated tariffs (to be updated four times a year based on a formula, which included the official inflation figures as well as the USD/TRY and EUR/TRY pairs) for renewable power plants due to come online from July 1, 2021 to end-2025. The ceiling for wind plants was set at $0.051 per kWh.

In May 2023, Erdogan amended the scheme again for plants that would come online from July 1, 2023 to end-2030. He introduced USD-denominated minimum and maximum prices for the lira denominated tariffs. For offshore wind plants, the YEKDEM price was to be set between $0.0675 per kWh and $0.0825 versus $0.0495-0.0605 for onshore wind facilities.

The Energy Exchange Istanbul (EPIAS) releases updated YEKDEM prices each month. On November 1, the latest YEKDEM prices were released.

Market prices

In June, Turkey’s energy watchdog EPDK hiked the price ceiling on the Day Ahead Market at the EPIAS to TRY 3,000/MWh from TRY 2,700/MWh in July 2023.

Between September 2022 and December 2022, the ceiling remained at its peak level of TRY 4,800 MWh. The hourly prices hit the ceiling across the period.

On September 2, 2023, the daily average price on the market saw a new record of TRY4,419 ($243). The dollar-denominated record was registered on February 13, 2012 at $392.

As of January 1, 2023, the EPDK had dropped the ceiling by 13% to TRY4,200 from TRY4,800, the peak level, set in September. As of April 1, 2023, the ceiling, which stood at TRY 2,600, was lower by 46% compared with the TRY4,800 at end-2022.

Between April 2022 and September 2023, there have been multiple price ceilings seen on the market under the so-called maximum price reconciliation mechanism (AUM).

The government transferred funds from renewables to other plants. As of April 2023, the price ceiling for coal plants was set at TRY1,800/MWh, while TRY1,700 was to be applied for renewables and TRY2,550 for natural gas, fuel oil, naphtha and diesel plants.

At end-September, the AUM, which was in March extended by six months, expired.

Installed capacity

At end-August, there were 301 active wind plants in Turkey with a combined capacity of 15 GW, while 295 wind plants with a capacity of 20 GW were pre-licensed.

Meanwhile, there were 49 active solar plants with a combined capacity of 2 GW in addition to 433 plants that were pre-licensed for a combined capacity of 15 GW.

Turkey had a combined licensed capacity of 109 GW while pre-licences have been issued for an additional 38 GW of capacity.

Together with unlicensed plants, Turkey’s combined capacity stood at 114 GW, including 18 GW solar (a 16% share in total) and 12 GW wind (11% share) capacities.

A total of 784 plants with a combined capacity of 18 GW, including 170 wind plants with a combined capacity of 7 GW and 36 solar plants with a combined capacity of 469 MW, were granted permission to benefit from the YEKDEM scheme in 2024, down from 887 plants with a combined capacity of 20 GW, including 196 wind plants with a combined capacity of 8 GW, in 2023.

In January-August 2024, the YEKDEM plants produced 53 GWh, or 22% of combined gross electricity production of 242 GWh in Turkey, while the government paid TRY 165bn in feed-in-tariffs.

In August, the average YEKDEM price stood at TRY 4.00 per kWh versus a weighted average market price of TRY 2.60.
 

YEKA Tenders
	Tender	Plant	Capacity (MW)	Best Bidder	Guarantee	kWh
Mar-2017	YEKA GES-1	Konya Karapinar	1,000	Kalyon - China Electronics Technology Group (CETC)	15-year	$0.699
Aug-2017	YEKA RES-1	6 plants	1,000	Kalyon, Siemens Gamesa, Turkerler	15-year	$0.348
		Gurun (Sivas)	90	YEKA RES Elektrik
		Kangal (Sivas)	160	YEKA RES Elektrik
		Sergen (Kirklareli)	145	YEKA RES Elektrik
		Balkaya (Kirklareli)	260	YEKA RES Elektrik
		Eskisehir	50	YEKA RES Elektrik
		Edirne	295	YEKA RES Elektrik
Jun-2018	YEKA DRES-1	Off-shore (Gelibolu, Saroz, Kıyıkoy)	1,200	DELAYED (no time set)	50 TWh	$0.800
May-2019	YEKA RES-2	4 plants	1,000	Enerjisa Uretim	15-year	$0.394
		Aydin	250	Enerjisa Uretim	15-year	$0.456
		Mugla	250	Enerjisa Uretim	15-year	$0.400
		Balikesir	250	Enerjisa Uretim	15-year	$0.353
		Canakkale	250	Enerjisa Uretim	15-year	$0.367
2019	YEKA GES-2	3	1,000	CANCELLED	15-year	$0.650
		Sanliurfa	500
		Nigde	300
		Hatay	200
May-2021	YEKA GES-3	74 mini	1,000	-	15-year	TRY 0.218
		Adiyaman-1	15	Cimya		0.209
		Adiyaman-2	15	Kontek		0.220
		Aksaray-1	10	Solarpark		0.225
		Aksaray-2	10	Margun/Naturel Enerji (NATEN)		0.230
		Aksaray-3	10	Ozkoyuncu		0.248
		Ankara-1	20	Margun/Naturel Enerji (NATEN)		0.223
		Ankara-2	20	Margun/Naturel Enerji (NATEN)		0.200
		Antalya-1	20	Gungunes/Erciyes Anadolu Holding (TMSF/Boydak)		0.215
		Antalya-2	20	Gungunes/Erciyes Anadolu Holding (TMSF/Boydak)		0.225
		Antalya-3	10	Margun/Naturel Enerji (NATEN)		0.185
		Agri-1	15	FYS		0.289
		Agri-2	15	FYS		0.282
		Batman-1	15	Egesa		0.208
		Batman-2	15	Margun/Naturel Enerji (NATEN)		0.190
		Bayburt-1	10	HMN		0.263
		Bilecik-1	10	YBT		0.257
		Bilecik-2	10	YBT		0.249
		Bingol-1	10	Aksa Enerji (AKSEN)		0.217
		Bingol-2	10	TeknoEl		0.216
		Bitlis-1	15	HMN		0.237
		Bitlis-2	15	HMN		0.238
		Burdur-1	15	Bakırlar		0.200
		Burdur-2	15	Margun/Naturel Enerji (NATEN)		0.197
		Bursa-1	10	Margun/Naturel Enerji (NATEN)		0.223
		Bursa-2	10	Miracyol		0.232
		Cankiri-1	10	Gumbel		0.231
		Cankiri-2	10	YBT		0.259
		Corum-1	10	YBT		0.249
		Diyarbakir-1	20	Smart Gunes (SMRTG)		0.197
		Diyarbakir-2	20	Eksim		0.203
		Elazig-1	10	Cimya		0.203
		Elazig-2	10	Cimya		0.199
		Erzurum-1	15	HMN		0.226
		Erzurum-2	15	Solakoglu		0.224
		Eskisehir-1	15	YBT		0.227
		Eskisehir-2	15	Oztac Petrol		0.220
		Gaziantep-1	20	Kalyon		0.200
		Gaziantep-2	20	Kalyon		0.199
		Gaziantep-3	10	Kalyon		0.204
		Hakkari-1	10	Özkurt		0.295
		Hakkari-2	10	Varen		0.320
		Igdir-1	10	Egesa		0.240
		Igdirr-2	10	Egesa		0.219
		Kahramanmaras-1	10	Binres		0.221
		Kars-1	10	Arda		0.238
		Kars-2	10	Tunaturk		0.227
		Kilis-1	10	Eksim		0.210
		Kilis-2	10	Polateliges		0.197
		Kirsehir-1	10	Conoglu		0.221
		Kirsehir-2	10	Aksa Enerji (AKSEN)		0.223
		Malatya-1	15	Kontek		0.200
		Malatya-2	15	Kontek		0.202
		Mardin-1	20	Eksim		0.190
		Mardin-2	20	Oztac Petrol		0.188
		Mardin-3	10	Oztac Petrol		0.185
		Mersin-1	15	Bakirlar		0.189
		Mersin-2	15	Bakirlar		0.220
		Mus-1	15	Binres		0.201
		Mus-2	15	Gungunes/Erciyes Anadolu Holding (TMSF/Boydak)		0.208
		Nevsehir-1	10	Conoglu		0.200
		Nevsehir-2	10	Esin		0.199
		Osmaniye-1	15	Bakirlar		0.197
		Osmaniye-2	15	Margun/Naturel Enerji (NATEN)		0.182
		Siirt-1	15	RST		0.200
		Siirt-2	15	HMN		0.213
		Sirnak-1	10	Eksim		0.236
		Sirnak-2	10	Eksim		0.213
		Usak-1	15	Bakirlar		0.189
		Usak-2	15	Kontek		0.185
		Van-1	20	Gungunes/Erciyes Anadolu Holding (TMSF/Boydak)		0.196
		Van-2	20	Gungunes/Erciyes Anadolu Holding (TMSF/Boydak)		0.199
		Van-3	10	Gungunes/Erciyes Anadolu Holding (TMSF/Boydak)		0.189
		Yozgat-1	15	YBT		0.200
		Yozgat-2	15	Aksa Enerji (AKSEN)		0.199
-	YEKA GES-4	3 plants DONE (16)	300 (1,000)	PARTIALLY DELAYED, Price ceiling amended	23 GWh	TRY0.95 (TRY0.40)
Mar-2022	Nigde	BOR-1	100	Smart Gunes (SMRTG)		0.375
Mar-2022	Nigde	BOR-2	100	Ecogreen		0.390
Mar-2022	Nigde	BOR-3	100	Kalyon		0.427
Jun 21, 2022	Hatay	ERZIN-1	100	Limak		0.597
Jun 21, 2022	Hatay	ERZIN-2	100	IC Ictas - IC Enterra Yenilenebilir Enerji (ENTRA)		0.584
Jun 21, 2022	Sanliurfa	VIRANSEHIR-1	50	Egesa		0.520
Jun 21, 2022	Sanliurfa	VIRANSEHIR-2	50	Eksim		0.556
Jun 21, 2022	Sanliurfa	VIRANSEHIR-3	50	Resitoglu Enerji		0.545
Jun 21, 2022	Sanliurfa	VIRANSEHIR-4	50	Ral Enerji		0.525
Jun 21, 2022	Sanliurfa	VIRANSEHIR-5	50	Kalyon Enerji		0.563
Jun 21, 2022	Sanliurfa	VIRANSEHIR-6	50	Eksim		0.546
Jun 21, 2022	Sanliurfa	VIRANSEHIR-7	50	Kalyon Enerji		0.538
Jun 21, 2022	Sanliurfa	VIRANSEHIR-8	50	Kalyon Enerji		0.539
Jun 21, 2022	Sanliurfa	VIRANSEHIR-9	50	Ral Enerji		0.490
Jun 21, 2022	Sanliurfa	VIRANSEHIR-10	50	Eksim		0.570
May 31, 2022	YEKA RES-3	20 (42) plants	850 (2000)	PARTIALLY DELAYED	35 GWh	TRY0.95 (TRY0.40)
		Adana	50	DELAYED
		Adiyaman	40	Akcadag Insaat		0.690
		Afyonkarahisar	50	DELAYED
		Agri - Igdir	20	DELAYED
		Aksaray - Kirsehir - Nevsehir	70	DELAYED
		Amasya - Samsun	40 (60)	Eksim Enerji (Eksim Holding/Tivnikli)		0.547
		Ankara - Kirikkale - Cankiri	50	Kalyon Enerji		0.663
		Antalya	60	DELAYED
		Ardahan - Kars	20	DELAYED
		Artvin - Rize - Trabzon	20	Kalen Enerji (Kalyon)		0.699
		Bartın - Zonguldak - Karabuk	20	A15 Enerji		0.773
		Batman - Mardin - Diyarbakir - Sanliurfa	40	Eksim Enerji (Eksim Holding/Tivnikli)		0.638
		Bayburt - Gumushane - Giresun	40	Kalen Enerji (Kalyon)		0.639
		Bilecik - Eskisehir - Kutahya	70	Kalyon Enerji		0.476
		Bingol - Tunceli	30	Eksim Enerji (Eksim Holding/Tivnikli)		0.698
		Bitlis - Mus	30	MBD Insaat		0.630
		Bolu - Duzce - Sakarya	40	DELAYED
		Burdur - Denizli - Usak	50	DELAYED
		Bursa	60	DELAYED
		Corum - Kastamonu - Sinop	50	Asiyan Enerji (Ronesans Holding)		0.449
		Edirne	40	DELAYED
		Elazig	40	Kalyon Enerji		0.651
		Erzincan	30	DELAYED
		Erzurum	30	DELAYED
		Gaziantep - Kilis	40	DELAYED
		Hatay	40	DELAYED
		Isparta	50	DELAYED
		Kahramanmaras - Osmaniye	70	DELAYED
		Karaman - Mersin	70	Eksim Enerji (Eksim Holding/Tivnikli)		0.408
		Kayseri - Nigde	90	DELAYED
		Kirklareli	60	DELAYED
		Kocaeli - Yalova	40	DELAYED
		Konya	50	DELAYED
		Malatya	80	Asiyan Enerji (Ronesans Holding)		0.470
		Manisa	30	DELAYED
		Ordu	40 (50)	Kalen Enerji (Kalyon)		0.549
		Siirt - Sirnak - Hakkari	30	Eksim Enerji (Eksim Holding/Tivnikli)		0.778
		Sivas	40 (90)	Asiyan Enerji (Ronesans Holding)		0.421
		Tekirdag	60	DELAYED
		Tokat	40 (60)	Zero Carbon Enerji		0.529
		Van	30	Betim Enerji(TMSF/Boydak)		0.699
		Yozgat	50	Eksim Enerji (Eksim Holding/Tivnikli)		0.530
DELAYED	YEKA GES-5	66 plants (76)	1300 (1500)	DELAYED	23 GWh	TRY0.40
		ANKARA-1	30
		ANKARA-2	20	DELAYED
		ANKARA-3	20	DELAYED
		ANKARA-4	20	DELAYED
		ANKARA-5	10	DELAYED
		ADIYAMAN-1	30
		ADIYAMAN-2	20
		ADIYAMAN-3	20
		ADIYAMAN-4	20
		ADIYAMAN-5	10
		ANTALYA-1	20	DELAYED
		BATMAN-1	30
		BATMAN-2	20
		BATMAN-3	20
		BATMAN-4	20
		BATMAN-5	10
		Bilecik-1	20
		Bingol-1	20
		Bingol-2	20
		BURDUR-1	20	DELAYED
		Denizli-1	20	DELAYED
		Denizli-2	10	DELAYED
		Diyarbakir-1	30
		Diyarbakir-2	30
		Diyarbakir-3	20
		Diyarbakir-4	20
		Diyarbakir-5	10
		Diyarbakir-6	10
		Elazig-1	30
		Elazig-2	20
		Elazig-3	20
		Elazig-4	20
		Elazig-5	10
		Eskisehir-1	20
		KIRIKKALE-1	20	DELAYED
		Kirsehir-1	10
		Kutahya-1	20
		MALATYA-1	30
		MALATYA-2	30
		MALATYA-3	20
		MALATYA-4	20
		MALATYA-5	10
		MALATYA-6	10
		Mardin-1	30
		Mardin-2	20
		Mardin-3	20
		Mardin-4	20
		Mardin-5	10
		Mus-1	30
		Mus-2	20
		Mus-3	20
		Mus-4	20
		Mus-5	10
		Siirt-1	30
		Siirt-2	20
		Siirt-3	20
		Siirt-4	20
		Siirt-5	10
		Sanliurfa-1	30
		Sanliurfa-2	20
		Sanliurfa-3	20
		Sanliurfa-4	20
		Sanliurfa-5	10
		Sirnak-1	30
		Sirnak-2	20
		Sirnak-3	20
		Sirnak-4	20
		Sirnak-5	10
		Usak-1	20	DELAYED
		VAN-1	30
		VAN-2	30
		VAN-3	20
		VAN-4	20
		VAN-5	10
		VAN-6	10
		YOZGAT-1	20
Jan 21, 2025	YEKA RES-2024	5 plants	1,200	-	72-month	$0.035-$0.055
		R24-Edirne RES	410
		R24-Balkaya RES (Kirklareli)	340
		R24-Sergen RES (Kirklareli)	200
		R24-Yellice RES (Sivas)	160
		R24-Gurun RES (Sivas)	90

 

Table: Full list of Turkey’s YEKA tenders.