Eight Lenders Sign Support Letter for Acwa's 2-GW Türkiye Solar

• Eight lenders signed a letter of support for financing Acwa's two 1,000-MW solar plants in Türkiye at COP31 in Antalya.
• The Sivas and Taşeli projects, worth about EUR 1.6 billion, are the first 2 GW of a 5-GW Saudi–Türkiye program.
• The financing still has to be arranged; Acwa expects both plants to start operating in 2029.

Eight international lenders have signed a letter of support for financing Acwa's 2-GW Sivas and Taşeli solar projects in Türkiye, the Saudi developer said on Nov. 11. The letter was signed at the COP31 climate conference in Antalya. It is not a loan agreement. The company said the lenders confirmed their support and took "an important step toward arranging the financing."

The signatories are six development finance institutions and two commercial banks: the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Germany's DEG, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Finance Corporation, the Islamic Development Bank, Société Générale and Standard Chartered. Acwa did not disclose loan amounts.

Each plant will have 1,000 MW. Sivas lies about 500 kilometers east of Ankara, and Taşeli is in Karaman Province, about 400 kilometers south of the capital. Acwa wholly owns both independent power projects. It lists 30-year offtake contracts with Elektrik Üretim A.Ş. (EÜAŞ) for each on its project pages. Türkiye had 28,222 MW of solar installed at the end of September, or 22.2% of its 127,355-MW power fleet, energy ministry data show.

The projects in numbers

• 2 × 1,000 MW of solar PV, in Sivas Province and in Karaman Province.
• EUR 1.6 billion, approximately, in combined investment.
• EUR 800,000 of investment per MW of capacity (list.solar calculation).
• 7.1% is the pair's size relative to the 28,222 MW of solar Türkiye had installed at the end of September, ministry data show (list.solar calculation).
• 1.3 million households, or more, are expected to be supplied.
• 1.65 million tonnes of CO2 a year, approximately, are expected to be avoided.
• 2 GW of the 5 GW of renewables agreed by Saudi Arabia and Türkiye in their Feb. 3 intergovernmental agreement.

On Feb. 20, Acwa signed investment agreement key terms with Türkiye's Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and power purchase agreement key terms with EÜAŞ. The company's first Turkish asset is the 950-MW Kırıkkale gas-fired plant, in commercial operation since 2017. Separately, the ministry's YEKA GES-2026 auctions allocated 785 MW of solar this month.

"Large-scale renewable energy projects can be built only when governments, offtakers, and lenders have agreed on how they will be financed and delivered," Acwa Chief Executive Officer Samir J Serhan said.

Acwa gave no date for financial close. It expects both plants to begin operation in 2029.