Turkey’s renewables scheme given $1bn by World Bank

Alamy via Reuters

• Funding to support solar energy market
• Turkish banks to help solar developers
• Pilot programme for battery storage

The World Bank has signed a $1 billion programme with Turkey to fast-track the nation’s renewable energy expansion initiatives.

The financing comprises €600 million ($657 million) in loans from the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development, $30 million from the clean technology fund, and $3 million in grant funding from the World Bank’s energy sector management assistance programme, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Additionally, the programme is expected to mobilise $259 million in private capital.

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The funding will support the establishment and expansion of Turkey’s solar energy market and pilot a programme for battery storage.

The state-run Development and Investment Bank of Turkey and the privately-owned Industrial Development Bank of Türkiye will spearhead the programme’s implementation, focusing on developing the local distributed energy market in two stages, the report said.

The banks will provide direct loans to private developers of rooftop and ground-mounted solar investments, focusing on commercial and industrial customers.

They will later support other local commercial banks or leasing companies to offer similar loans to solar developers.

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Ankara aims to scale up solar energy to 52.9 gigawatts (GW) by 2035 from 9.5GW in 2022. Its target for battery storage is 7.5GW.

Turkey secured the backing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in March to launch a new initiative to decarbonise its hard-to-abate sectors, such as steel, cement, aluminium and fertiliser.

The country has committed to a net-zero target of 2053, making industrial decarbonisation imperative.

Its low-carbon pathways initiative show that investments of more than $70 billion will be needed to decarbonise the selected four sectors by 135 million tonnes CO2 annually.