Turkey and Saudi Arabia to sign renewable projects at Cop31

Saudi Arabia’s Acwa will sign the second phase of a 5-gigawatt renewable energy deal with Turkey at the Cop31 UN climate summit, Acwa chairman Mohammad Abunayyan said.

The new phase will be a mix of solar, wind and storage, he told the state-run Anadolu news agency.

Cop31 will be held in Antalya, Turkey, from November 9 to 20. 

The two countries earlier this month signed a $2 billion deal to build two solar power plants in Turkey as part of the first phase. The two projects will have a total capacity of 2GW and be constructed in central Anatolia.

The plan is part of an intergovernmental agreement to develop renewables in Turkey, energy and natural resources minister Alparslan Bayraktar said.

The Sivas and Taşeli solar projects will meet the electricity needs of 2.1 million households, Bayraktar added. Turkey expects the localisation rate to be at least 50 percent in Sivas and Taşeli.

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Talks are also ongoing to integrate storage into the initial 2GW solar projects, Abunayyan said.

Turkey has set a goal of reaching 120GW of installed solar and wind power capacity by 2035, Bayraktar said, adding Ankara will need to build 8 to 10GW of solar and wind plants every year.

Turkish vice president Cevdet Yilmaz last year estimated Acwa Power’s investments to be worth up to $5 billion.