IN Brief:
- Seven YEKA RES-2026 wind tenders cover a combined 1,500MW of grid connection capacity.
- Winning bids reached a 3.50 euro-cent/kWh electricity price, alongside project-specific contribution fees.
- Bidders face ministry approval and contracts before project delivery, with a 72-month market-sales period followed by 20-year offtake.
Türkiye’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources has concluded the competitive bidding stage for seven wind power projects with a combined grid connection capacity of 1,500MW. The YEKA RES-2026 tenders took place on 2 November and cover proposed developments in Sivas, Balıkesir, Manisa, and Kütahya. Five companies submitted the winning bids across the seven allocations, which still require the relevant ministry approval and contractual procedures before construction can advance.
The seven competitions allocated specified grid connection capacities and development rights for renewable energy resource areas. The ministry held them in sequence, beginning with Sivas, then four Balıkesir sites, Manisa, and Kütahya. Twelve companies submitted 29 applications across the round, with five companies ultimately offering the winning terms. The resulting allocations establish which developers can advance their projects through approval, contracting, permitting, and eventual construction.
Metgün Enerji Yatırımları submitted the winning bid for the 320MW Sivas project, the largest individual connection allocation in the round. It bid 3.50 euro cents per kilowatt-hour and a contribution payment of €30,000 per megawatt, equivalent to €9.6m before VAT across the project capacity. In its stock exchange disclosure, Metgün confirmed that signature of its YEKA right-of-use agreement would follow approval of the result by the ministry.
The four Balıkesir projects total 685MW. Poyraz Yenilenebilir Enerji secured the leading bid for Balıkesir-1, a 140MW allocation, with a contribution of €42,000 per megawatt. Egesa Elektrik took Balıkesir-2, rated at 235MW, at the electricity price floor without an additional contribution fee. Fe Girişim Enerji won both Balıkesir-3, a 170MW project, and Balıkesir-4, another 140MW project, at contribution rates of €20,000 and €154,000 per megawatt respectively.
Balıkesir-4 attracted the highest contribution commitment in the round: €154,000 per MW, or €21.56m before VAT for the 140MW allocation. The 235MW Balıkesir-2 project was secured at the price floor without an additional contribution fee. Separate auctions for designated grid connection areas therefore produced different upfront financial commitments. Each successful bidder must still develop the generating site and the electrical connection infrastructure within its allocated capacity and agreed terms.
Egesa Elektrik also secured the 235MW Manisa allocation with a contribution bid of €16,000 per megawatt, equivalent to €3.76m. Ecogreen Elektrik Enerji Üretim made the leading offer for the 260MW Kütahya project at €72,000 per megawatt, corresponding to €18.72m. Ecogreen’s stock exchange information states that the next steps include a ministry invitation to execute the contract followed by the relevant permissions, allocation, and investment procedures.
Across the seven projects, winning contribution commitments amount to €62.92m before VAT. Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar reported a total of approximately €75.5m including VAT. The electricity price component reached the floor of 3.50 euro cents per kilowatt-hour at every site, with differences in the per-megawatt contribution offers accounting for much of the variation among successful bids. The contribution payments are separate from the projects’ eventual construction and equipment costs.
The YEKA structure combines an initial period in which developers may sell electricity on the free market with a subsequent long-term purchase arrangement. Under the tender terms, wind power can be sold on the free market for 72 months after the right-of-use agreement is signed. A 20-year electricity purchase period then begins at the tariff determined through the competition. The ministry’s original tender framework specified an opening ceiling of 5.50 euro cents per kilowatt-hour and a floor of 3.50 euro cents.
Grid connection capacity is allocated through the tender, but each development must still move through contracts, permits, turbine selection, site engineering, and construction before exporting electricity. Collector circuits will need to gather production from the turbine positions, and substations will provide protection and the appropriate network connection. The winning bids establish the commercial terms for those future developments without specifying their eventual operating dates or installed equipment models.
The ministry forecasts annual production of about 4.6 billion kilowatt-hours from the proposed 1.5GW portfolio after completion. That expected generation is equivalent to consumption by approximately two million households, and the ministry estimates an annual reduction in natural gas imports valued at $852m. The forecast depends on the eventual turbine specifications, wind resource, operating availability, and delivery of the seven developments, all of which remain ahead in the construction programme.
The allocations cover seven sites, with Sivas at 320MW and Kütahya at 260MW, while four separate projects in Balıkesir together account for 685MW. The ministry must complete its approval and contracting steps before developers can advance the construction programmes. On the ministry’s projections, the completed portfolio would provide 1.5GW of new wind generating capacity and approximately 4.6TWh of annual electricity production, subject to delivery and operating performance.
