TFF Launches Green Transformation with SPP Project
TFF Launches Green Transformation with Solar Power Plant Project
The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) held a press conference to present the Solar Power Plant (SPP) Project, which will be a lifeline for the economies of clubs in Turkish football, and the solar power plant to be built under the Energy Performance Contract (EPC) business model.
The meeting, held at the Riva Hasan Doğan National Teams Camp and Training Facilities, was attended by TFF President Mehmet Büyükekşi; Vice President, Executive Committee Member and Board Member responsible for Club Licensing and Disabled Football Federations Yusuf Günay; Executive Committee Member and Board Member responsible for the Süper Lig Müslüm Özmen; Secretary General Taner Senseven; and Deputy Secretary General Mustafa Aztopal.
TFF President Mehmet Büyükekşi: “God willing, we aim to bring the championship trophy to our country at EURO 2032”
Speaking at the meeting, TFF President Mehmet Büyükekşi said: “Members of the Board of the Turkish Football Federation and esteemed members of the press, welcome. Alongside the prestigious results achieved by our national teams, another development that has delighted us recently is that our country will co-host EURO 2032 with Italy. Today our national team has one of the youngest squads in its history. Our young talents continue to make us proud both in national leagues and on the international stage. We have laid the foundations of a national team that will become European Champions at the European Football Championship that we will host in Türkiye together with Italy in 2032. By bringing entirely new successes to Turkish football at EURO 2032, we aim, God willing, to bring the championship trophy to our country. As you know, we also received another piece of news in recent days that delighted all of us across the country. With Beşiktaş Tüpraş Stadium, which we nominated to UEFA as TFF, we won the right to host the 2026 UEFA Europa League Final. Likewise, if the New Ankara Stadium, which is under construction in Ankara, is completed in time, a UEFA final will be played in our capital for the first time in our history, with the 2027 UEFA Europa Conference League Final.”
“We must ensure the financial sustainability of our football off the pitch as well”
Providing details about the project, President Büyükekşi said: “The foundations of a sustainable future for Turkish football cannot, of course, be laid solely through success on the pitch. We must ensure the financial sustainability of our football off the pitch as well. In line with our state’s vision of green and digital transformation within the framework of the ‘Century of Türkiye’ strategy, we first completed our digital transformation. In this context, we enabled our clubs to complete transfer and visa processes through digital tools. We completed the digital transformation of referee, observer and representative reports.
We have enabled clubs to determine their match kits before the season through digital methods. As a result, away teams no longer have to bring three kits to every match, which has created a significant saving opportunity for clubs. We have moved to digital signatures across the entire TFF structure. We have begun building ‘Big Data’ in our youth academies. In this way, all information on players in the youth academies will be uploaded to this ‘Big Data’ and made available to academy directors. Now it is the turn of green transformation with the SPP Project. As we all know, in today’s world everyone, large or small, individuals and institutions alike, needs to take responsibility for sustainability. At this point, efforts to reduce carbon emissions and investments in renewable energy in line with ‘net zero’ targets are of great importance. As the Turkish Football Federation, we too are bringing another valuable project to life with the idea of meeting our energy needs from efficient and renewable sources. Today, we are taking the first step towards building a solar power plant with an installed capacity of approximately 2.6 MWp under the Energy Performance Contract (EPC) business model. The plant, which will consist of approximately 6,000 solar panels over an area of 33,000 square metres, is expected to produce an average of 4.5 million kWh per year. In addition, our state has allocated land in Karaman to our institution in order to support this project. Our clubs will also be able to meet their electricity needs on this land. We have informed the Clubs Association Foundation. If they wish, clubs can also apply to this project individually and start their own green transformation.”
“With this plant, we will meet all of TFF’s electricity consumption with clean energy”
Emphasising that the project aims to increase environmental awareness and savings in energy costs, President Büyükekşi continued: “With the turnkey solar power plant that is planned, all of the Turkish Football Federation’s electricity consumption will be met with clean energy. The plant will also prevent around 2,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year, equivalent to the carbon absorbed from the atmosphere by half a million trees. The amount of green energy to be produced will be equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 1,500 homes. With the solar power plant to be built, clean energy will be supplied to all of the Turkish Football Federation’s camps and facilities, above all the Hasan Doğan National Teams Camp and Training Facilities in Riva, as well as the Beylerbeyi and Levent facilities and the 16 regional directorates.
Through this collaboration, as the Turkish Football Federation we will be taking a pioneering step in supporting the spread of clean energy use and sustainability in Türkiye’s sports sector by bringing green energy to green pitches. With this project, we aim to raise awareness of environmental issues among all our stakeholders and to achieve a remarkable rate of savings in energy costs. Our solar power plant project will not only provide an environmentally friendly energy source, but will also help us reduce our carbon footprint by managing our energy consumption effectively. With solar panels installed on land unsuitable for agricultural production, we will both generate energy and use these areas productively. With the plant that will come into operation, we will meet all of the Turkish Football Federation’s electricity consumption with clean energy.”
“Our greatest hope is that our clubs will accompany us on our zero-carbon journey”
Calling on all clubs to support green transformation in Turkish football, President Büyükekşi concluded his remarks by saying: “All we want is for the step we are taking today to shape the sustainable future of Turkish football. In the coming period, our greatest hope is that our clubs will also, as part of this responsibility, accompany us on our ‘zero carbon’ journey. I thank our Board Member Mr Yusuf, above all, and our board members and professionals who contributed to this collaboration, and I greet you all with respect, affection and warmth.”
Yusuf Günay: “We are the country with the second-highest potential in Europe in both solar and wind energy”
Following President Büyükekşi, TFF Vice President, Executive Committee Member and Board Member responsible for Club Licensing and Disabled Football Federations Yusuf Günay took the floor and said: “Mr President, esteemed colleagues, members of the press, I greet you all with respect as I begin my remarks. First of all, in order to understand the philosophy behind what we call green transformation, I would like to talk about the Industrial Revolution. As we all know, the Industrial Revolution was a very important turning point in human history. It marked the beginning of a process in which production and consumption rapidly increased on a mass scale, energy was drawn from fossil fuels, primarily coal, oil and natural gas, and carbon emissions into the atmosphere thus intensified. Today, as we all see and experience in our daily lives, natural disasters such as drought, floods, fires and landslides have begun to appear. To move away from this danger known as global warming and to prevent it, the world signed the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015. Türkiye is also one of the signatory countries. The Paris Climate Agreement aims for the world to become carbon neutral by 2050. If this does not happen, global warming will leave the world facing a very serious catastrophe. To that end, certain targets have been set, with 2050 as the world’s common goal. The European Union countries, led by Germany, have committed to sourcing their energy from renewable sources by 2035; by renewable, I mean inexhaustible, endless sources that do not produce carbon emissions, such as the sun and the wind. Türkiye has also pledged to become a carbon-neutral country by 2053. Within this framework and under the Paris Climate Agreement, the European Union launched a project of green transformation, a green deal, a green economy, in which energy is produced entirely from green sources in every field. In this context, it also introduced a further regulation known as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. What this means is that, after 2026, from the start of 2026, European Union countries have put in place a directive requiring an additional tax to be paid on certain products, particularly carbon-intensive ones such as iron and steel, cement, ceramics and aluminium, unless the electricity used in their production comes from green sources. This has made it necessary for industry in all countries, Türkiye first and foremost, to take steps towards sourcing its production energy from solar and wind. As Türkiye, we are in fact a very fortunate country in this respect. We are the country with the second-highest potential in Europe in both solar and wind.”
“We had 2,000 decares of land in Malatya allocated to Turkish football to meet the electricity needs of the clubs”
Underlining that TFF acted without losing time in line with the green transformation movement, Günay said: “In this context, when we were elected by the general assembly and took office in June 2022 under the chairmanship of our President Mehmet Büyükekşi, I conveyed to our President the idea that, within this green transformation movement, we as a federation should also source our electricity from renewable sources. The President told me to act immediately on this, and to act not only for the federation but to source the electricity needs of all professional clubs, starting with the Süper Lig and including the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Leagues, from renewable sources. To this end we began work, and thanks to our President’s bureaucratic and social connections, we had 2,000 decares of land in Malatya allocated to the federation for 49 years for Turkish football, to meet the electricity needs of professional sports clubs. That is an area of 2 million square metres. This took place in March 2023, and from that date we began discussing these matters with the clubs. As our President has also stated, unfortunately we were only able to give the first briefing on this subject at the fourth meeting. The turn for building a power plant simply never came. Because of delays in the decision-making process in the Clubs Association and also some technical impossibilities and setbacks, unfortunately the step we took to meet the electricity needs of all clubs did not turn out exactly as we wished. But our President has also announced from here that if any club applies to build a solar power plant, there is enough land in Karaman to meet their needs, and it is possible for us, as the federation, to allocate it.”
“This project can be an example to the world”
Reiterating that all of TFF’s electricity consumption will be met thanks to this project, Günay said: “It is worth making another call from here. Our President also said that we should at least not stop here, and that we should act to meet all of the federation’s electricity needs. This is in fact an important contribution to Turkish football, because the European Union and the developed world place great importance on obtaining electricity from renewable sources within the framework of green transformation, and the Turkish Football Federation will gain recognition for this as an important brand value. In this context, we have started working again. Bureaucratic procedures are currently under way. The foundation of the plant will be laid in July. In October, the plant will begin producing electricity. The electricity the Turkish Football Federation needs will be produced at this plant. Its annual value is approximately 10-12 million TL, and the value it will provide to the Turkish Football Federation over a 25-year period is 400 million TL in present value terms. The Turkish Football Federation bears no financial obligation for building this plant. There is no expenditure whatsoever on its part. The SPP will be installed by the relevant company, and with provisional acceptance the plant and the land will pass into the federation’s ownership. It will be operated by the relevant company for 6 years. After 6 years, the operation will be handed over to our federation. Thus our federation will become the owner of the SPP without spending any money. As our President has also stated, there are of course initiatives in some countries around the world for federations to source their own electricity from green energy. As Türkiye, we are one of the first countries to source its needs from renewable sources at this scale. This is a project that can be an example to the world.”
The plant will produce an average of 4.5 million kWh per year
The plant, which will consist of 5,832 solar panels on 33,214.66 m² of land reserved for TFF, within a 75,212.55 m² plot at Block 151, Parcel 1 in Buzluk Village, Yazıhan district of Malatya, is expected to produce an average of 4.5 million kWh per year. The plant will be built under the Energy Performance Contract (EPC) business model, without using TFF’s own equity.
The foundation of the project is planned to be laid in July 2024
With the solar power plant to be built, all of the electricity consumption of the Turkish Football Federation’s regional directorates and facilities, above all the Riva Hasan Doğan National Teams Camp and Training Facilities, will be met with clean energy. Once the relevant preliminary technical processes are completed, the foundation is planned to be laid in July 2024, with the first clean energy production due to begin in October 2024.