Turkey-China MOU targets $15bn renewables investment

Turkey and China signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday that could lead to about $15 billion in Chinese investment in renewable energy projects in Turkey, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said.

The two countries' energy authorities signed the agreement on the sidelines of the UN climate conference in Antalya province.

Bayraktar said the agreement envisages roughly $15 billion in investment. He said the two sides aim to develop 7,000 megawatts of solar and wind power capacity, new energy storage systems and 4,000 megawatts of electricity transmission capacity.

He said the cooperation would help expand Turkey's renewable energy capacity, enable technology transfer, support production of wind turbine equipment in Turkey and contribute to domestic industry.

Turkey's long-term energy strategy aims to raise the share of renewables in installed power capacity to 77 percent by 2040. Under that target, combined wind and solar capacity is set to rise to 175 gigawatts from 45 gigawatts currently.