Turkey and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement on Friday under which Saudi energy company ACWA Power will build two large solar power plants in central Turkey, Turkish officials said, in a project they put at about $2 billion.
The signing, held at a waterfront palace on the Bosporus Strait in İstanbul, followed an intergovernmental energy agreement reached during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Riyadh on February 3, Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Ministry said.
Turkey is preparing to host the United Nations climate summit known as COP31 in Antalya on the Mediterranean coast later this year. Australia is set to lead negotiations prior to and during the meeting, according to an agreement announced in November 2025.
Under the solar deal ACWA Power will build two plants, each with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts, in Sivas province and in the Karaman Taşeli area, for a combined 2,000 megawatts, officials said. They said the projects would generate enough electricity to meet the needs of about 2.1 million households.
Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar called the initiative one of the largest investments in Turkey’s energy sector and said the state would procure the electricity at the lowest prices Turkey has achieved for such projects.
Bayraktar said 62 percent of Turkey’s installed electricity capacity last year came from renewable sources and that Turkey had increased its installed solar and wind capacity from near zero to more than 40,000 megawatts. He said Turkey aims to raise installed solar and wind capacity to 120,000 megawatts by 2035.
Turkey has set a goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2053, but 33.6 percent of its electricity came from coal last year, according to the ministry. In response to questions about reliance on coal, Bayraktar said Turkey aims to cut energy import dependence and lower costs, adding that coal could be replaced first by gas and later by nuclear power.
Relations between Ankara and Riyadh have improved in recent years after a period of tension triggered by the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate General in İstanbul in October 2018.
© Agence France-Presse