📋 Tender Overview
The World Bank Group, in collaboration with the Republic of Türkiye’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, launched a new roadmap today which outlines the way forward to establish a successful offshore wind industry in Türkiye.
The Offshore Wind Roadmap for Türkiye provides strategic analysis of the opportunities and challenges to deliver viable offshore wind projects, based on local insight and global experience. The Government of Türkiye has set a target of 5 GW of installed capacity for offshore wind power by 2035. The roadmap provides a comprehensive set of recommendations to help realise these ambitions to build a new industry that can meet Türkiye’s future energy demands and sustainability goals.
This roadmap was created and funded as part of a series of offshore wind roadmap studies under the joint Energy Sector Management Assistance Program-International Finance Corporation (ESMAP-IFC) Offshore Wind Development Program, and with support from PROBLUE. The publication was launched at the 'Tu?rkiye Offshore Wind Conference: Roadmap and Next Steps’ event hosted in Istanbul by the World Bank in partnership with the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources from November 7-8, 2024.
The roadmap highlights Türkiye’s geographical advantages, natural resources and industrial strengths as key enablers for a competitive offshore wind power industry. Favourable offshore wind resources are located near high-demand power centres, offering a large-scale, domestic power generation source which can increase Türkiye’s energy independence and complement other renewable technologies.
The analysis identifies Türkiye’s strategic location, close to European and Asian markets, as an opportunity to become a regional clean energy hub. Türkiye’s strong industrial base and skilled workforce, particularly its successful onshore wind, shipbuilding and maritime industries, are well-positioned to thrive in the offshore wind supply chain with sufficient project volume and pipeline.
Tu?rkiye’s waters have areas with a total technical potential offshore wind resource estimated at 75 GW. The roadmap outlines the potential for up to 7 GW of offshore wind capacity to be installed by 2040. It also examines the challenges of realizing these prospects. Most areas with good offshore wind resources are suited to floating foundations solutions, given water depths exceed 50 meters. These areas also have significant environmental and social sensitivities, requiring offshore wind projects to carefully plan and mitigate impacts on protected areas, biodiversity, critical habitats and local communities.
The scenarios in the report illustrate two hypothetical development paths for offshore wind in Türkiye:
Low growth: which assumes 3.5 GW of offshore wind power is installed by the end of 2040. In this scenario, it is estimated that by 2030 supply chain activities could create 32,000 FTE (full time equivalent) jobs years and contribute $4 billion to Tu?rkiye’s economy. The low growth scenario could be achieved with moderate action by the Government, focusing on the first few small-scale projects.
High growth: which assumes 7 GW of offshore wind power is installed by the end of 2040. In this scenario, it is estimated that supply chain activities could create 110,000 FTE years and $16 billion gross value added to Tu?rkiye’s economy.
To achieve these scenarios, the roadmap highlights 21 recommended actions for the Government of Türkiye to consider. This includes setting the country’s vision beyond 2035 as part of long-term energy system planning; implementing regulatory and policy frameworks which proactively de-risk projects; establishing a bankable power purchase agreement (PPA); introducing best-practice health and safety standards; upgrading grid and port infrastructure; and development of domestic supply chains.
As part of the next steps forward, the World Bank is now supporting the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources to implement the ‘Tu?rkiye – European Union Instrument for PreAccession (IPA) Energy Sector Program Phase IV Project - Offshore Wind Support’. The objective of this project through to 2027 is to assist Tu?rkiye to improve the investment potential for offshore wind energy generation by de-risking selected sites and reinforcing institutional capacities via measurement campaigns as well as providing technical, environmental, and social analysis.
Humberto Lopez, World Bank Country Director for Türkiye, said:
“Offshore wind, as an important renewable energy resource, holds the potential to accelerate Tu?rkiye's transition to net-zero by complementing ongoing onshore wind and solar investment plans, drive supply chain growth and job creation, and strengthen the country’s position as a green energy hub in the region. The World Bank has prepared a roadmap that we hope will inform Government policies and plans to meet Türkiye’s installed capacity targets for offshore wind power. We now look forward to further collaboration to make it happen by establishing the policies and infrastructure for a successful offshore wind industry.”
Sean Whittaker, Co-lead of the World Bank Offshore Wind Development Program, said:
“Tu?rkiye has many areas with good natural conditions for offshore wind development. This roadmap provides detailed analysis of the opportunities and challenges involved in advancing this new source of domestic renewable energy. The roadmap provides key recommendations to fully realise this new source of domestic renewable energy, including policy development and planning for a pipeline of bankable projects which carefully mitigate environmental and social impacts.”
