Turkey opens tender for 1,200 MW offshore wind plant project

ANKARA

Turkey has opened a tender for a 1,200-megawatt (MW) offshore wind plant project.

The Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Ministry will accept applications for the plant, which “will be the biggest in the world and the first of its kind in the country” according to Turkish officials, until Oct. 23.

According to an announcement in the Official Gazette on June 21, the Renewable Energy General Directorate of the Ministry will start assessing applications the same day and will inform applicants about the date and place of tender. The applicants will be able to form a consortium to attend.

The ceiling price for one megawatt-hour has been set as $8 and applicants will compete for the lowest bid in a reverse auction.

The investor who submits the lowest bid will sign an energy purchase agreement, including the first 50 terawatts-hour of electricity production starting from the first commissioning of the plant.

Energy Minister Berat Albayrak said on June 20 that the tender specifications required 60 percent local equipment production and employment of Turkish engineers at a rate of 80 percent, as reported by Anadolu Agency.

Saros and Gallipoli located in the Marmara region and Kıyıköy in Thrace were named the candidate regions for the power plant in March.

Turkey held a 1,000-megawatt solar Renewable Energy Resource Zones (YEKA) tender in 2017.

A Siemens-led consortium, which includes Türkerler and Kalyon Enerji, won the $1 billion wind energy tender, offering the lowest price to the state with $3.48 cents per kilowatt hour.

The country plans to increase its wind and solar capacity by 10,000 megawatts each in the upcoming decade.