Turkey Invites Bidders for Biggest Offshore Wind Farm

Turkey said on Thursday it would be accepting applications for the construction and operation of a 1,200-MW offshore wind farm—the world’s biggest—until October 23.
The Renewable Energy General Directorate will begin assessing the applications on October 23 and then inform the applicants about the date of the auction for the offshore wind farm.  In its official announcement of the tender Thursday, Turkey’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources set the ceiling for the price of one megawatt-hour at $8. Applicants—who will be able to form consortia—will be bidding to offer the lowest price in a reverse auction.
The bidder with the lowest bid will sign a power purchase agreement.
Some of the other specifics in the race to build and operate the offshore wind farm include 60% of the equipment to be domestically produced and 80% of employees to be Turkish nationals.
Earlier this year, Turkey identified Saros and Gallipoli in the Marmara region in northwest Turkey straddling Europe and Asia as the potential sites to host the world’s biggest offshore wind farm.
As of the end of 2017, Turkey had a total of 207 wind energy plants, with a total installed capacity of 6,516 MW, according to its Energy and Natural Resources Ministry. Last year, wind energy accounted for 6.06% of Turkey’s electricity production. Last year, Turkey was targeting to have $5 billion in wind energy investments, as part of its long-term plans to raise the share of renewable sources in the country’s total installed power to 30% by 2023.
By that time, Turkey aims to have total installed power capacity of 120 GW. The plan through 2023 also envisages installing 1 GW of geothermal and 5 GW of solar energy, but also increasing coal-fired installed capacity from the current 17.3 GW to 30 GW.