The second of the Renewable Energy Resource Zones (YEKA) auctions in Türkiye convened on August 3, 2017. A reverse auction overseen by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources saw the Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy-Türkerler Energy-Kalyon Construction consortium emerge as winners for the 1 GW wind energy project. The consortium’s winning bid was USD 3.48 cent/kWh.
The tender lured bids from eight of the world's top ten wind turbine producers. Four of the bidders hailed from Germany, two from China, one from the US, and one from Denmark. Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak emphasized that the tender will mark a new era in renewable technologies in Türkiye by breaking a new world record in wind prices. “The broad participation of world’s leading companies has manifested the confidence in our economy and energy markets,” added Albayrak.
The winning Turkish-German consortium of Siemens Gamesa-Türkerler-Kalyon is expected to invest more than USD 1 billion within the scope of the project. It is widely thought that the German participation in the YEKA project consortium will help reduce recent political tension between Türkiye and Germany. German giant Siemens has been operating in Türkiye for 160 years, and this fact was not lost on Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Türkiye President Arda Ermut, who underlined that the outcome clearly shows that the strong economic ties between Türkiye and Germany have not been harmed. Ermut assured that Türkiye will continue being a stable and attractive investment destination for German companies, who have invested around USD 9 billion in Türkiye over the last 15 years.
Including a minimum 10-year R&D requirement, the winning consortium will construct a wind turbine factory at an investment cost of USD 100 million. This factory will produce up to 450 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 2.3 MW. The consortium will also build wind power plants in 5 different regions in Türkiye – including Kayseri-Niğde, Sivas, Edirne-Kırklareli-Tekirdağ, Ankara-Çankırı-Kırıkkale and Bilecik-Kütahya-Eskişehir – each with a minimum of 50 MW capacity and 65 percent local content. These locally-produced wind turbines, having a combined capacity of 1 GW, will generate 3 billion kWh of electricity starting from 2019, which is enough to supply the needs of 1.1 million homes.
Türkiye’s aggressive promotion of renewable energy has seen the country significantly reduce costs based on the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) over recent years. The first YEKA tender reduced FiT prices on solar power plants to USD 6.99 cent/kWh, down from USD 13.3 cent/kWh, while the second lowered wind power FiT prices to USD 3.48 cent/kWh, down from USD 7.3 cent/kWh. With these competitive costs in hand, Türkiye plans to ramp up its installed wind capacity to 20 GW by the end of 2023. Türkiye’s current wind energy capacity is in excess of 6.1 GW.