09 January 2024 Admin
8 - 14 December 2025
Turkey is quietly rewriting its energy story. Long seen mainly as a corridor for Russian gas and Iraqi oil, Ankara is now investing to become a producer, manufacturer, and regional rule-shaper in its own right.
Over the past week, several signals pointed in the same direction: more renewables, deeper industrial capacity, and new forms of finance to underwrite both.
On the clean energy front, Turkey is accelerating its solar and geothermal build-out. New solar tenders have attracted strong interest from local and international companies, while a major manufacturing investment in Balıkesir aims to produce solar wafers and cells at gigawatt scale. The goal is not just to install panels, but to make them – and to export a large share to regional and European markets.
At the same time, geothermal is moving from niche to strategy. Exploration plans in central Anatolia, for example, are designed to link geothermal heat directly to greenhouse agriculture. That model – using local energy resources to reinforce local food systems and jobs – offers a glimpse of how Turkey may try to anchor its transition in real economies, not just in headline megawatts.
Financing tools are also changing. A planned multi-billion-dollar sukuk issuance by the state oil company, alongside a major long-term loan for industrial investments, shows how Islamic finance and syndicated lending are being mobilised for energy security and industrial upgrading. In a global context where most transition capital still flows to advanced economies and China, Turkey is testing ways to localise both the technology and the money.
None of this replaces hydrocarbons overnight. Ankara is simultaneously recalibrating its oil and gas relationships: trimming Russian oil imports while keeping gas flows high, negotiating with Baghdad on restarting the Iraq–Turkey pipeline, and navigating emerging “oil for water” discussions that link energy transit to water stress and environmental concerns. Energy, water and trade corridors are increasingly being negotiated as a single package.
The political layer is never far away. Corruption scandals around energy spending in neighbouring conflict zones are a reminder that weak governance can turn infrastructure into a liability. In contrast, Turkey is expanding its diplomatic and security footprint in regions like the Sahel, where energy, mining and infrastructure deals are likely to follow its growing political presence.
For MENA Centra, the message is clear: the energy transition in and around the Middle East is no longer just a technical shift from fossil fuels to renewables. It is a reordering of who manufactures, who finances, and who controls the corridors that move electrons, molecules and goods.
Signals to watch
