Türkiye Awards 785 MW of Solar at 11 Sites in YEKA GES-2026 Auctions

• Türkiye allocated 785 MW of solar at 11 sites in nine provinces in its YEKA GES-2026 auctions, drawing 44 bids from 19 companies.
• All sites went at the 3.25-euro-cent floor price, so bidders competed on per-MW fees totaling €37.9 million including VAT.
• Winners sell on the open market for 60 months, then deliver power for 20 years at 3.25 euro cents per kWh.

Türkiye's Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources allocated 785 MW of utility-scale solar grid-connection capacity at 11 sites in its YEKA GES-2026 auctions, the ministry said on Nov. 3. Nineteen companies filed 44 bids. The sites lie in nine provinces.

Every site went at 3.25 euro cents per kWh, which Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar called the floor price. So bidders competed on a contribution fee pledged per megawatt. The pledges total €31.585 million before 20% VAT, or €37.9 million ($42.7 million) with it.

Winners may sell on the open market for 60 months from contract signing. After that, the plants deliver power to the transmission system for 20 years at 3.25 euro cents. In the 800-MW YEKA GES-2024 solar round, bids ran from a 5.50-US-cent ceiling down to a 3.25-US-cent floor, then switched to contribution offers, according to that round's specification.

Egesa Enerji won the most capacity: 200 MW in Diyarbakır, 120 MW in Mardin and 25 MW in Batman. Temmuz Güneş Enerji took Denizli (30 MW) and two Kahramanmaraş sites (85 MW and 50 MW). İş Enerji Yatırımları won 110 MW in Konya. Ezel Mensucat Sanayi won 55 MW in Malatya with the top per-MW pledge. Erser Grup Tarım and İklim Invest Enerji took Ankara's 40-MW and 30-MW sites, and Ecogreen Enerji won 40 MW in Elazığ.

The auctions in numbers

• 71.4 MW is the average size of the 11 sites (list.solar calculation).
• €40,236 ($45,334) per MW was the average contribution pledge before VAT (list.solar calculation).
• €12,000 to €91,000 per MW separated the lowest pledge, at Ankara-2, from the highest, at Malatya-1.
• 44% of the capacity, or 345 MW, went to Egesa Enerji (list.solar calculation).
• 2.8% is the round's size relative to the 28,222 MW of solar Türkiye had installed at the end of September, ministry data show (list.solar calculation).
• 1,500 MW of wind was allocated at seven sites in the YEKA RES-2026 auctions on Nov. 2, at 3.50 euro cents per kWh after 72 months of merchant sales.

The wind and solar rounds allocated 2,285 MW at 18 sites. Bayraktar said they would bring $1.9 billion of new investment and generate 6.1 billion kWh a year. Solar made up 22.2% of Türkiye's 127,355 MW of generating capacity at the end of September, second only to hydropower.

Each plant's 60-month merchant period starts when its winner signs the YEKA contract. The ministry gave no signing dates.