Solar Incentives in Turkey

Last updated: 1 October 2026 · Last verified: 1 October 2026

Turkey’s solar incentive system is in transition. The old YEKDEM feed-in tariff, which underwrote the country’s rise from 40 MW of solar in 2014 to roughly 25.8 GW by January 2026, closed to new projects at the end of 2025. In its place, Turkey is leaning on two newer tools: a 2026 regulatory framework for unlicensed solar once a plant’s YEKDEM term expires, and the YEKA auction system, which now pays developers extra for using Turkish-made equipment. This page tracks what support is actually available today, who qualifies, and what changes are coming next.

YEKDEM: Closed to New Projects, Still Paying Out Legacy Plants

YEKDEM (Yenilenebilir Enerji Kaynakları Destekleme Mekanizması — the Renewable Energy Resources Support Mechanism) is a feed-in tariff created under Electricity Market Law No. 6446. It guaranteed renewable generators a fixed purchase price, in US dollar-linked terms, for ten years from commissioning, with extra “local content” bonuses for domestically manufactured equipment.

The current window of YEKDEM (sometimes called YEKDEM-II) was only open to facilities that obtained a YEK certificate and started commercial operation by 31 December 2025. According to Turkish energy-market reporting on EPDK’s 2025 cost-allocation decisions, YEKDEM’s total unit cost for 2025 ranged between roughly 223.14 and 580.92 Turkish lira per MWh across the mechanism’s technology mix — a cost-sharing figure, not a single per-technology solar tariff. Projects commissioned after the 2025 cut-off no longer qualify for YEKDEM support and must sell into the open market instead.

Plants that already completed their 10-year YEKDEM term face a separate question: what happens to the power once the guaranteed-price period ends. Presidential Decision No. 11415, issued 12 June 2026, answered that for unlicensed (typically rooftop and small distributed) plants: where generation and consumption share the same metering point, all output may still be sold; where they sit at different metering points, only the EMRA-determined surplus qualifies, priced at 90% of the then-current YEKDEM tariff for licensed facilities (capped at the hourly EPİAŞ day-ahead market clearing price). Licensed plants that exit YEKDEM after their 10-year term, by contrast, move to selling directly on EPİAŞ’s day-ahead and intraday markets.

YEKA: Auctions Now Pay More for Turkish-Made Equipment

With YEKDEM closed, new utility-scale solar and wind capacity in Turkey is being allocated mainly through YEKA (Yenilenebilir Enerji Kaynak Alanları — Renewable Energy Resource Areas) auctions, run by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources under Minister Alparslan Bayraktar. The 2026 round, open for bids on 13 October 2026, covers 2.4 GW: roughly 900 MW of solar across 14 projects in nine provinces, and about 1.5 GW of wind across seven projects in four provinces.

The auction sets a ceiling price of €55/MWh for both technologies, with floor prices of €32.5/MWh for solar and €35/MWh for wind, and a guaranteed minimum (contract-for-difference) price of €47.5/MWh. Winning bidders sign a 20-year PPA at their strike price, with guaranteed grid access for five years (solar) or six years (wind) after award.

The incentive layer that matters most for manufacturers sits inside the bid-qualification rules rather than the tariff: solar bidders must source at least 75% of panel value domestically (post-wafer processing), with a 51% threshold for cables, mounting structures, trackers and inverters. Wind bidders need 55 of 125 possible domestic-content scoring points, with a 65% threshold for blades and 51% for towers and generators. Energy Minister Bayraktar has said the round is meant to help Turkey reach its 120 GW 2035 renewable-capacity target early, and has forecast solar becoming the country’s single largest electricity source by the end of 2026.

Who Can Apply?

• Households and small businesses: net-metering/surplus-sale rules under unlicensed generation (up to 5 MW), including the post-YEKDEM surplus-purchase mechanism for plants that have exhausted their 10-year term.
• Independent power producers and utility-scale developers: YEKA auction rounds, open to companies that can meet prequalification and domestic-content requirements; the next bid date is 13 October 2026.
• Equipment manufacturers: no direct cash grant, but a structural demand incentive — YEKA’s 75% domestic-content threshold for solar panels effectively requires winning developers to buy from (or build) qualifying Turkish manufacturing capacity, which several market analyses flag as a bottleneck given the limited number of factories currently able to meet the threshold.
• Legacy YEKDEM participants: no new applications possible; existing certificate-holders continue receiving their original 10-year tariff until it expires, then shift to EPİAŞ market sales or the post-YEKDEM surplus mechanism if unlicensed.

What’s Next

Bids for the 2026 YEKA round are due 13 October 2026. EMRA is still expected to issue secondary legislation clarifying exactly how much “surplus” qualifies for the 90%-of-tariff purchase price under Presidential Decision No. 11415 for unlicensed plants with separate metering points — a detail that affects how much legacy rooftop and distributed solar owners actually earn once their YEKDEM term lapses. This page will be updated once bid results and that secondary legislation are published.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is YEKDEM still open to new solar projects in 2026?
No. YEKDEM’s current window only covered projects that obtained a YEK certificate and started commercial operation by 31 December 2025. Projects commissioned after that date do not qualify and must sell into the open market or compete in YEKA auctions instead.

What replaced YEKDEM for new utility-scale solar in Turkey?
YEKA (Renewable Energy Resource Areas) auctions, which award 20-year contracts-for-difference through competitive bidding rather than a flat feed-in tariff, with domestic-content bonuses layered into the qualification rules.

What happens to solar plants after their YEKDEM term ends?
Licensed plants move to selling power directly on EPİAŞ’s day-ahead and intraday markets. Unlicensed plants fall under Presidential Decision No. 11415 (June 2026), which allows sale of surplus electricity at 90% of the current licensed YEKDEM tariff, capped at the hourly market price.

What is the domestic-content requirement for Turkey’s 2026 solar auction?
Solar bidders in the 2026 YEKA round must source at least 75% of panel value from Turkey (after wafer processing), plus a 51% threshold for cables, structures, trackers and inverters.

When is the next Turkish renewable energy auction?
The 2026 YEKA round, covering 2.4 GW of solar and wind, is scheduled for bid submission on 13 October 2026.

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Sources

• EPDK (Energy Market Regulatory Authority) 2025 YEKDEM cost-allocation decisions, as reported by Ekonomi Gazetesi and BloombergHT, 2025
• Presidential Decision No. 11415, 12 June 2026, on unlicensed-generation surplus sales after YEKDEM expiry
• Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, 2026 YEKA auction announcement; coverage by Balkan Green Energy News, September 2026
• Mondaq / Turkish legal-advisory coverage of the post-YEKDEM unlicensed framework, 2026
• SurgePV and PV Magazine market analyses of Turkey’s 2026 solar incentive landscape and YEKA domestic-content thresholds

Illustrative image. Photo: kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — source