 government has submitted a bill to parliament seeking approval of a solar energy agreement with Saudi Arabia under which two large power plants will be built in central Turkey.){kind=link}
Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has submitted a bill to parliament seeking approval of a solar energy agreement with Saudi Arabia under which two large power plants will be built in central Turkey.
Saudi energy company ACWA Power will build two solar plants, each with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts, in Sivas province and the Karaman Taşeli area, according to the proposal. Electricity generated by the plants will be purchased for 30 years by Elektrik Üretim Anonim Şirketi, Turkey’s state electricity generation company.
The bill was submitted to the legislature to secure approval of a roughly $2 billion agreement signed by Turkey and Saudi Arabia in February for the construction of the two solar plants. The agreement followed an intergovernmental deal on renewable energy cooperation reached during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Riyadh earlier that month. The two plants are the first phase of a larger 5-gigawatt renewable energy program involving ACWA Power.
The proposal says the land allocated for the plants will remain under state ownership, while the facilities will be transferred to the government free of charge after 30 years.
Officials say the plants could generate enough electricity to meet the needs of some 2.1 million households.
Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar previously described the project as one of the largest foreign investments in Turkey’s energy sector and said electricity would be procured at low prices.
Turkey aims to increase its installed solar and wind capacity to 120,000 megawatts by 2035 as part of its plan to reach net zero emissions by 2053.
Renewables account for more than 60 percent of Turkey’s installed electricity capacity, according to official data.
However, their share in actual electricity generation is lower because fossil fuels still play a significant role. In 2025, low-carbon sources generated about 43 percent of Turkey’s electricity, while wind and solar accounted for 22 percent, according to the energy think tank Ember. Coal remained the country’s largest power source at 34 percent.