The key facts

  • Preliminary agreement signed on November 12 at COP31 in Antalya: about $15 billion for solar and wind energy
  • Projects with a capacity of 7 GW plus energy storage and grid improvements
  • Turkey plans to increase solar and wind generation capacity to 175 GW by 2040

Agreement at the climate summit in Antalya

On November 12, Turkey signed a preliminary agreement with China aimed at attracting about $15 billion (€13.5 billion) in investments into solar and wind energy projects, the country's Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said. The document was signed at the UN COP31 climate summit taking place in Antalya.

What the agreement includes

The agreement covers plans to build solar and wind power plants with a combined capacity of seven gigawatts, as well as energy storage and measures to improve power grids. According to Bayraktar, the cooperation will also include technology exchange to support the production of wind turbine equipment in Turkey. No timelines for the projects or details of the financing were given in the announcement.

Context of the talks and energy plans

The signing took place after talks between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Chinese Vice President Han Zheng at the summit on November 11. According to the Chinese state agency Xinhua, Han said Beijing is ready to encourage more Chinese companies to invest in Turkey and called renewable energy a sphere for closer cooperation.

Scale of the task

As of the end of September, Turkey had about 43.8 GW of solar and wind generation capacity — just over a third of all installed electricity generation capacity, according to the Ministry of Energy. The new national energy strategy envisages increasing this capacity to 175 GW by 2040 and shifting most of the country's energy consumption from oil and gas to electricity. Speaking at the summit on November 10, Bayraktar estimated Turkey's investment needs for the energy transition until 2040 at about $300 billion (€270 billion) and noted that attracting such funds would require international partnerships and predictable conditions for investors.