EnergyOMNI's Perspectives｜Türkiye Plans to Launch Its First Offshore Wind Tender in Q1 2027

Edited by EnergyOMNI

The Turkish government announced in August that it will hold its first offshore wind tender in the first quarter of 2027, with 1 GW of capacity to be allocated.

In May this year, Türkiye's Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources announced the first list of offshore wind Renewable Energy Resource Areas (YEKA). The areas identified as candidate YEKA sites include Saros Bay on the western Aegean coast, covering 173 square kilometres; Gökçeada, covering 75 square kilometres; Bozcaada, covering 127 square kilometres; and an area of 125 square kilometres near the coast of Edremit.

The government had originally planned to launch the offshore wind tender by the end of 2026, with the first wind farm expected to be installed by 2030–2031. In August, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar said that the tender is now planned for the first quarter of 2027. The government also plans to announce the tender specifications in September, ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31), which will be held in Antalya, Türkiye, in November.

The minister said this will be Türkiye's first offshore wind tender and expressed confidence that the country can achieve its target of 5 GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2035. He also sincerely invited domestic and international investors to follow the tender and actively participate in the bidding process.

In June this year, Türkiye released a draft of the tender rules. Under the draft, developers in the call will compete for the right to use Renewable Energy Zones (YEKA) zones for 49 years and a 27-year revenue support. The ceiling price for the purchase of power has been set at USD 0.11 (EUR 0.09) per kWh, with a floor price at USD 0.07/kWh. The industry were able to submit comments on the draft rules to the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, and the consultation period ended on August 17.

According to the World Bank Group's assessment report, Offshore Wind Roadmap for Türkiye, Türkiye has 75 GW of offshore wind technical potential, including 12 GW of fixed-bottom wind potential and as much as 63 GW of floating offshore wind potential. Türkiye previously held an offshore wind tender in 2018, with a tender capacity of 1.2 GW. However, no developers submitted bids due to insufficient technical survey data.

Consulting firm GlobalData forecasts that Türkiye's offshore wind projects will begin coming online in 2032 and that the country may fall short of the government's 5 GW target by 2035, with only around 1.3 GW of offshore wind capacity expected to be completed. The main obstacle to project development is expected to be the permitting process.

In addition, inadequate grid infrastructure could cause further project delays. Bankability is equally important to project completion, as factors such as inflation, exchange-rate fluctuations and supply-chain disruptions could all increase costs and make offshore wind projects more difficult to finance. Industry representatives said the 1 GW tender will be a critical test for Türkiye's offshore wind development and recommended that the government introduce an offshore wind development roadmap for the next five to ten years as soon as possible.