Climate Investment Funds approves $1B plan to upgrade Turkey's power grid

Reuters

Multilateral lender Climate Investment Funds (CIF) has agreed to back a $1 billion plan to upgrade Turkey's electricity grid so it can handle more renewable energy by providing an initial investment to the project, it said on Oct. 31.

The CIF board agreed a $70 million investment from its Renewable Energy Integration (REI) investment platform with the aim of drawing in a further $790 million to expand and improve transmission infrastructure and $330 million for technology.

Ultimately, the plan, developed with the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) and World Bank, is to attract more than 15 times CIF's contribution from other investors.

Turkey's solar and wind resources would allow it to complete "one of the most ambitious clean energy scale-ups in the world" CIF Chief Executive Tariye Gbadegesin said in a statement.

"Our support for the development of a smart, flexible, and responsive national grid will help ready the country for such a rapid increase in intermittent wind and solar power."

The modernization includes strengthening connections and investing in smart-grid upgrades. The technological improvements would include digitalizing the distribution grid and increasing battery energy capacity.

Taken together, the improvements should allow Turkey's power grid to integrate an additional 60 Gigawatts of wind and solar energy capacity by 2035, CIF said, enough to power around 70 million homes for a year, it added.

Turkey's Deputy Minister, Ministry of Treasury and Finance Osman Çelik, said the country was dedicated to boosting its renewable capacity in line with a target to achieve net zero emissions by 2053 and "green development goals."

The CIF endorsement of Turkey's investment plan follows similar steps in fellow REI programme countries Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Fiji, Kenya, and Mali.