Acwa + Turkey discuss green energy investment: Saudi Arabian renewables giant Acwa Power is reportedly holding talks with Turkey’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources about investing in the country’s green energy industry, Bloomberg reports, citing Turkish officials familiar with the negotiations. It is unclear how far along the talks are. “[We] cannot elaborate more at this point,” an Acwa spokesperson said.

Adding fuel to the rumors: Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz told a local news channel last weekend a “Saudi-owned company” was interested in investing USD 5 bn into the Turkish energy sector among other areas, Bloomberg writes.

Turkey’s been courting Saudi investments: Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Saudi Arabia was looking to develop 4-5 GW worth of renewable energy projects in Turkey last year, after initial talks began during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan official state visit to Jeddah.

But Acwa’s Turkish green plans have been stalled: Acwa was looking to build a 340 MW wind power plant in Turkey back in 2016, Hurriyet Daily reported at the time, citing comments made by Acwa’s head of Turkish operations Abid Hussain Malik. The company’s only investment in Turkey goes back almost a decade with the USD 1 bn, 950 MW Kirikkale Combined Cycle Power Gas Plant in a contract with Samsung C&T.

Turkey has big green targets: Turkey revealed a new national energy plan in January, increasing the quota of renewable energy generation in its energy mix by 7% by 2035 to 23.7% — up from 16.7% in 2020. The country aims to generate an ambitious 190 GW of clean power by 2035 to help realize its net zero commitment and is eyeing a green hydrogen electrolyzer generational capacity totaling 2 GW in 2030, increasing to 5 GW in 2035.

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