New YEKA solar plants to power 600,000 homes

New YEKA solar plants to power 600,000 homes

ISTANBUL
New YEKA solar plants to power 600,000 homes

The new solar power plants to be built with the contracts awarded under the Renewable Energy Resource Zone (YEKA) tenders will bring in $500 million in investments and power 600,000 homes, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said.

The tenders held for solar power plant contracts in the provinces of Konya, Karaman, Malatya, Van, Antalya and Kütahya attracted 146 applications from 67 companies, according to the minister.

The solar power plants to be constructed in those provinces will have a total installed capacity of 800 megawatts and annually produce 1.5 billion kilowatts hour of electricity, Bayraktar said.

When those solar plants come online, the electricity produced from those facilities will prevent the import of around 300 million cubic meters of natural gas annually, reducing energy imports by a total of $3 billion over a period of 20 years, he added.

The companies, who won the tenders, have the right to sell the electricity they produce for 20 years at a fixed price. The generated electricity will be supplied to the transmission system.

Last month, the ministry held YEKA tenders for wind power plants with 1,200 megawatts capacity which are expected to unleash investments worth $1.2 billion.

The ministry plans to hold at least 2,000 megawatts YEKA tenders each year.

Türkiye aims to reach 120,000 megawatts of solar and wind power installed capacity by 2025.