Turkey is looking to open its first offshore wind tender by the end of 2026 and could then see the first wind turbines installed off its coast by 2030-2031, the president of the Turkish Wind Energy Association (TÜREB) told Anadolu Agency .
According to the TÜREB President Ibrahim Erden, the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MENR) has been working over the past two to three years to identify suitable sites, design tender mechanisms, and explore financing models.
Back in 2023, MENR said that it had received a grant from the European Union toward the cost of the EU Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA) Energy Sector Program Phase IV Project, part of which the Ministry would use for consulting services.
In June 2023, MENR launched a tender for site investigations and consultancy services for three development zones in the Sea of Marmara, with work said to set the stage for the country’s first offshore wind tender.
Under its National Energy Plan, announced in 2022, Turkey aims to have 5 GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2035.
In 2024, the World Bank Group and MENR launched an offshore wind roadmap for the country that outlines the potential for up to 7 GW of capacity to be installed by 2040. According to the roadmap, four initial exploration areas have been identified, and these are found in the Aegean Sea (around Çanakkale and Ayvalik), the Sea of Marmara, and, to a lesser extent, the Black Sea.
According to the World Bank’s estimates from 2020, Turkey has a technical offshore wind potential of 75 GW , with 12 GW of this deemed most suitable for fixed-bottom and 63 GW for floating offshore wind.