Turkey, Saudi Firm Plan to Sign New Renewable Energy Deal at COP Summit

(MENAFN) Türkiye and Saudi Arabian company Acwa are scheduled to sign the second phase of a 5-gigawatt renewable energy partnership at the UN climate summit COP31 in Antalya later this year, according to statements from Acwa’s chairman, Mohammad Abunayyan.

The upcoming agreement will cover the remaining 3 gigawatts of capacity under a government-to-government deal between the two nations, following this week’s signing of the first 2 gigawatts of solar projects in Türkiye’s central provinces of Sivas and Karaman.

“We are going to sign 3 gigawatts in renewable and storage by COP31,” Abunayyan said in an interview on the sidelines of the Istanbul ceremony for the Sivas and Taseli solar power plants.

He added that the new phase “will be a mix between solar and wind and storage,” and noted that the company is exploring the possibility of integrating storage into the initial 2-gigawatt solar projects as well.

The first phase, signed earlier this week, is part of the larger 5-gigawatt framework agreed during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Saudi Arabia on Feb. 3. Abunayyan said construction on the initial 2-gigawatt solar capacity is expected to begin next year once permits and environmental approvals are completed, with the first electricity generation targeted for early 2028.

“We are going to start our dispatch of the first electricity of this 2 gigawatts by the beginning of 2028, and we will be able to produce it all in 2028,” he said, calling it a “very fast track project.”

COP31, scheduled for Nov. 9–20 in the Mediterranean city of Antalya, will include a leaders’ summit in Istanbul. Nearly 200 countries are expected to participate, focusing on implementing the Paris Agreement through emissions reduction, climate adaptation, finance, and carbon market mechanisms.

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