Climate Investment Funds (CIF), one of the world’s largest multilateral funds, has backed a $1 billion funding for Turkey’s green energy scale-up.

The fund’s board approved a $70 million investment from its renewable energy integration (REI) investment platform, which will contribute to the green expansion of Ankara’s energy system.

The CIF funding will raise $790 million to transform the country’s power transmission system and invest in smart-grid upgrades. It will also enable a $330 million investment in technologies to improve system flexibility, including decentralised electric charging stations, digitalisation of the power distribution grid, and a 7,500 megawatt (MW) increase in battery energy capacity. 

These improvements will allow Turkey’s power grid to integrate an additional 60 gigawatt (GW) of wind and solar energy capacity by 2035, quadrupling solar photovoltaic capacity from 14 GW to almost 53 GW and more than doubling wind capacity from 12 GW to 29.6 GW.  

“Turkey has the solar and wind resources to execute one of the most ambitious clean energy scale-ups in the world,” said CIF chief executive Tariye Gbadegesin.

“Our support for the development of a smart, flexible, and responsive national grid will help ready the country for such a rapid increase in intermittent wind and solar power,” he said.

The plan, developed in collaboration with the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development and the World Bank Group, is expected to bring in more than 15 times the initial investment in co-financing. 

Ten countries are part of the REI, with Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Fiji, Kenya, and Mali’s investment plans endorsed.