Certain amendments were introduced to the Regulation on the Renewable Energy Resource Areas[1] (“YEKA Regulation”) by a Regulation published in the Official Gazette on October 5, 2024 (“Amending Regulation”).

Some of the key novelties are as follows:

The requirement in Article 1 of the YEKA Regulation that a Renewable Energy Resource Area (“YEKA”) must be a large-scale area has been abolished by the Amending Regulation.
Following the amendments to Article 4/1 of the YEKA Regulation, several definitions were revised (e.g., “Candidate YEKA”, “YEKA Agreement”) or introduced to (e.g., Environmental Impact Assessment” (“EIA”), Competition Documents) or removed from (e.g., Factory”, “Allocation in Exchange for Use of Domestic Goods (YMKT), “Allocation in Exchange for Domestic Manufacturing (YÜKT)) the YEKA Regulation.
In cases where YEKA’s are developed by General Directorate of Energy Affairs, the obligation under Article 5/2 (b) to obtain the opinion of the Turkish Electricity Transmission Corporation (“TEİAŞ”) before designating candidate YEKA areas has been removed. The areas found suitable will be declared as candidate YEKA for detailed studies, directly by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (“Ministry”).
In cases where YEKA’s are developed by the General Directorate, Article 5/2 (c) now allows the Ministry to either consult designated institutions or conduct an EIA for candidate YEKA areas.
In cases where YEKA’s are developed by the General Directorate, as per the amended Article 5/2 (f), the candidate YEKA, which has been inspected by the institutions or for which “EIA Positive”/ “EIA Not Necessary Decision” has been taken, will be announced in the Official Gazette as YEKA and notified to the relevant authorities to be included in the environmental layout plans.
Previously, Article 5/2 (ğ) stipulated that the relevant authorities must be notified if a candidate YEKA was not declared within 1 (one) year. Following the amendment, if no announcement is made within 2 (two) years, the candidate status will be cancelled.
The “open-bidding process” under Article 10 was abolished, the tender will be organised by the Ministry according to the procedure specified in the YEKA specification. Article 11 now mandates selecting the “most appropriate offer” instead of the “lowest offer”. The selected company must submit its Trade Registry Gazettes, a letter of guarantee, and all required documents which set forth in YEKA specification to the General Directorate.
The Amending Regulation revised Articles 12/2 and 12/3 by reducing the timeframe for submitting a pre-license application to the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (“EMRA”) from 45 days to 15 days. This time period commences after the signing of the YEKA agreement; however, if the YEKA area is developed subsequent to the YEKA competition, the period commences following the approval of YEKA proposals by the General Directorate, their publication in the Official Gazette as YEKA, and notification to the EMRA.
As per Article 12/7 of the Amending Regulation, the characteristics of the domestically manufactured equipment to be used in the electrical energy generation facility and the issues related to their production and/or their use will be determined in the YEKA specification and the documents required in the YEKA specification should also be submitted to the General Directorate.
According to the amended Article 14, the additional domestically manufactured equipment support that can be applied for the equipments to be used other than the domestic equipments that must be used, may be determined by the YEKA specification.
The Amending Regulation removed the requirement in Article 17 to notify the Ministry of a force majeure situation within 30 days in order to obtain an extension.

The Amending Regulation has entered into force on the date of its publication in the Official Gazette on October 5, 2024.

[1] Renewable Energy Resource Areas Regulation (Yenilenebilir Enerji Kaynak Alanları Yönetmeliği) published in the Official Gazette numbered 29852 and dated July 9, 2016.

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