Turkey prepares for solar bids

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Ankara is preparing for the tendering process for a solar fields investment with a total volume of around 900 million euros, the top executive of the Turkish branch of a Brussels-based energy consultancy firm said March 9.

“Turkey ranks among the top countries to invest in renewable energy sources,” said Geert Dooms, the general manager of 3E Turkey, speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News on the sidelines of Deloitte Turkey’s “Minimizing Development Risks of Wind Projects in Turkey” conference in Istanbul.

Dooms said Turkey’s Energy Ministry was working on finalizing the feasibility tests in four Turkish cities: in the western province of Izmir, the central province of Konya, the southern province of Adana and Diyarbakir in the southeast of the country. The final studies would be completed in six months and the government would start the tendering process for solar field investments next year, he added.

 “These will be the first solar fields in Turkey,” said Dooms, adding that electricity generation would start with a capacity of 600 megawatts and could be increased in the future. The total volume of the investment would be nearly 900 million euros, he said.


Already local and international firms show a deep interest in taking part in the first solar fields of the country, he added.
However, Turkey needs more than $70 billion in financing in the next five years for electricity generation, distribution projects and privatizations, Mevlüt Akbaş, Deloitte chief of finance, told the Daily News.