The Government of Turkey applied for up to $290 million in funding for its geothermal energy projects, according to the Bank's announcement Tuesday.
The World Bank has published a procurement notice for the bank's Turkey Geothermal Development Project, of which the primary objective is to scale up private sector investment in geothermal energy in Turkey.
The notice read that the funding is required to be used at the early stage of development in geothermal projects and foresees an amount of up to $290 million in support.
The Turkish government has set a target of developing 1,000 megawatts (MW) of geothermal electricity generation capacity by 2023 and has put in place a supportive legal framework to facilitate geothermal development.
'The Republic of Turkey has applied for financing in the amount of $40 million from the Carbon Trust Fund (CTF) through the World Bank as a grant,' according to the announcement.
The additional $250 million in funding was sought by two of Turkey's national development banks.
'Turkiye Kalkinma Bankasi A.S. (TKB) [Development Bank of Turkey] and Turkiye Sinai Kalkinma Bankasi A.S. (TSKB) [Industrial Development Bank of Turkey] applied for loan in the amount of $150 million and $100 million respectively from the World Bank towards the cost of the Geothermal Development Project, and they intend to apply part of the proceeds to payments for goods, works, non-consulting and consulting services to be procured under this project,' the announcement read.
Turkey’s geothermal sector has experienced an incredible rise in recent years with a growth in power generation capacity from 30 MW in 2008 to the current 648 MW.
As a result, Turkey is attracting a lot of interest from the global geothermal energy community both as a market for products and services, and as an example on how to stimulate geothermal project development.
By Ebru Sengul
Anadolu Agency
ebrusengul@aa.com.tr