Wedoany.com Report on Feb 5th, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced that Saudi Arabia will invest $2 billion to build two solar power facilities in Turkey. This project marks a significant advancement in energy cooperation between the two countries.
According to information released by Bayraktar on the social media platform X, these two solar power projects will proceed in phases, with the first phase having a total installed capacity of 2,000 megawatts. The construction sites are located in the provinces of Sivas and Karaman in the Central Anatolia region. The project is scheduled to commence in 2027, with the first phase expected to be completed by the end of the same year, and the entire project is set for full completion in 2029.
The power purchase agreements are for a term of 25 years. The electricity purchase price for the Karaman plant is 1.995 euro cents per kilowatt-hour, and for the Sivas plant, it is 2.3415 euro cents per kilowatt-hour. This investment agreement was formally signed during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's visit to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.
Bayraktar stated, "We believe these investments will become one of the most significant examples of foreign direct investment in our energy sector, fully financed with external funds." He also revealed that international financial institutions will provide credit support for this project. It is estimated that upon completion, these two solar power plants will be able to meet the daily electricity needs of approximately 2.1 million households in Turkey.
This cooperation has been in preparation. In December last year, Bayraktar had disclosed that Turkey had initiated preliminary discussions with Saudi Arabia's Acwa Power company regarding a solar project with a capacity of 5 gigawatts. Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz estimated last year that the related investment from Acwa Power could be as high as $5 billion.
Bayraktar also noted that during the talks, the possibility of achieving grid interconnection between Saudi Arabia and Turkey was explored. "The scale and importance of this project are so great that it can impact our entire region," he added.
It is also understood that Ankara, the capital of Turkey, secured $748 million in concessional financing from the World Bank this August. This funding will be used to modernize and expand its electricity transmission infrastructure through large-scale solar and wind power projects.
