The Energy and Natural Resources Ministry launched another tender for Renewable Energy Resource Areas (YEKA) for the installation and operation of 1000-megawatt (MW) capacity in wind power, in the form of four 250-MW plants.

Accordingly, tenders will be held for the establishment of wind power plants in the regions of Balıkesir, Çanakkale, Aydın and Muğla, each with a capacity of 250 megawatts.

In the tenders where the initial ceiling price was announced as $5.50 per kilowatt-hour, the power purchase time was determined as 15 years from the date of the signing of the right-of-use contract. The contract price for each tender will be TL 5,000 ($937) and these costs will not be refunded.

In order to be able to participate in the tender, a partial or full cash-in and out of limit letter of guarantee amounting to TL 2.5 million with a one-year term will be submitted to the contracting firm at the application stage.

In case of winning the tender, a partial or full cash-in letter of guarantee amounting to TL 12.5 million with a 10-year term will be submitted to the contractor in the form specified in the contract no later than one day before the date of signing the contract.

The applications will be delivered by hand to the address of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, General Directorate of Energy Affairs in Ankara until March 7. The place, date and time of the tenders will be announced by the administration. The tender winner will sign a 15-year purchase agreement with the ministry under a power plant license that will run for 49 years.

A tender for the first YEKA project of 1,000 MW was held last year in August, creating an investment volume of $1 billion. Eight consortia, including some of the world's largest turbine manufacturers, participated in the tender.

The tender resulted in a world record feed-in-tariff at $3.48 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) offered by the Siemens-Türkerler-Kalyon consortium. The total capacity will be installed in Sivas, Edirne, Kırklareli and Eskişehir. The consortium will invest over $1 billion in wind facilities. With the introduction of domestic wind power plants, a minimum of 3 billion kWh of electricity will be generated each year, enough to meet the electricity demand of approximately 1.1 million households.