Sawt Falasteen - Turkey, Saudi sign major solar power deal

The signing ceremony at an Ottoman-era palace by the waters of the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul followed a $2-billion inter-governmental energy agreement between the two countries during a landmark visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Riyadh on February 3.

Turkey is preparing to host the United Nations' COP31 climate summit on its Mediterranean coast later this year, with Australia leading the negotiations.

Ties between Turkey and Saudi Arabia have steadily improved in recent years after collapsing in the wake of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents inside the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.

The two countries now cooperate on a range of diplomatic issues, including support for Gaza and backing Syria's new government following the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad in 2024.

Under the agreement, Saudi firm Acwa will build two solar power plants in the provinces of Sivas and Karaman in central Turkey, with a combined capacity of 2,000 megawatts -- enough to meet the electricity needs of 2.1 million households, officials said.

Turkish energy minister Alparslan Bayraktar hailed the project as "one of the largest domestic and foreign investments ever made in our energy sector", and said Turkey "will also secure electricity procurement at the lowest price ever achieved in our country".

Turkey is undergoing an energy "revolution", he said, adding that 62 percent of installed electricity capacity last year came from renewable sources.

"We have increased our installed capacity in solar and wind energy from almost zero to over 40,000 megawatts today. We consistently emphasise that our country has much greater potential in renewable energy," he told a ceremony.

By 2035, Turkey aims at increasing its installed capacity in solar and wind to 120,000 megawatts.

Ankara is also targeting net zero emissions by 2053, but 33.6 percent of its electricity came from coal last year, according to official ministry data.

In response to an AFP question about Turkey's dependence on coal, Bayraktar said Turkey aims at cheaper energy and reducing reliance on energy imports.

"Coal can initially be replaced with gas, but in the medium and long term it can be substituted with nuclear" power plants, he said.

O.Mousa--SF-PST