Azerbaijan green energy corridor deal became the headline energy story of the COP31 summit in Antalya this week, after Azerbaijan signed an intergovernmental agreement with Georgia, Turkey and Bulgaria to build a shared route for clean electricity across the South Caucasus and into Europe. The document was signed on November 10 on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference, formalizing a project the four governments have been preparing since 2024.
The agreement was signed by Azerbaijan’s Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov, Turkey’s Minister of Energy Alparslan Bayraktar, Georgia’s Minister of Economy Mariam Kvrivishvili and Bulgaria’s Minister of Energy Iva Petrova. It provides for the development of existing power transmission lines between the four countries, the construction of new infrastructure and the expansion of electricity exports to European markets.
Under the plan, the four states will designate their electricity transmission system operators, who will become shareholders in a joint venture created to implement the project. The transmission capacity of the corridor is projected to reach between 2,000 and 3,000 megawatts once the new infrastructure is in place.
How the Azerbaijan green energy corridor deal is meant to work
For Baku, the strategic logic is straightforward. Shahbazov described the agreement as a crucial step toward establishing a green energy corridor among the four nations, saying it would facilitate the delivery of Azerbaijan’s substantial renewable energy potential to the Turkish and European markets, reinforce regional energy ties and transform the country into an interregional electricity hub. Azerbaijan has spent years marketing its Caspian wind and solar resources to European buyers, and a dedicated transmission route gives that pitch physical substance.
Turkey framed the project in terms of its own transit ambitions. Bayraktar called it an electricity TANAP, drawing a parallel with the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline, which already carries Azerbaijani gas across Georgia and Turkey to European customers. The comparison captures the design: generation in the Caspian region, transit across the Caucasus and Anatolia, and delivery into the European grid through Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian energy ministry added that the Azerbaijan green energy corridor deal also provides for integrating the power grids of the four states, alongside cross-border transmission and trade. The parties are to define the technical, commercial and regulatory conditions needed to ensure safe, reliable and uninterrupted flows of electricity, and the project also includes fiber-optic communications and data transmission along the route.
From memorandum to the Azerbaijan green energy corridor deal
The agreement did not appear from nowhere. According to the Turkish energy ministry, the foundation for cooperation among the four countries was laid in 2024, a memorandum of understanding followed in Baku in April 2025, and the ministers met again in Istanbul in May 2026, where terms of reference for the project were already drafted and an action plan was agreed.
That steady progression is one reason officials present the Azerbaijan green energy corridor deal as more than summit communique language. A joint venture with named national operators as shareholders gives the project a corporate vehicle, and the projected capacity gives investors and regulators a concrete target to plan around.
What is still missing is the hard detail. Specific timelines for building the new infrastructure have not been made public, and neither have the projected investment volumes. Transmission projects of this scale typically take years of permitting, financing and construction, and the four grids will need regulatory alignment before power can flow on commercial terms. For European buyers, the Azerbaijan green energy corridor deal is also a diversification play, one more route for non-Russian energy into their markets.
Even so, the direction of travel is clear. Europe wants non-Russian energy from its eastern neighborhood, the Caucasus states want export routes that raise their strategic value, and Turkey wants to be the bridge for both. If the partners now deliver the joint venture, the studies and the financing, the Azerbaijan green energy corridor deal could do for electrons what the region’s pipelines already did for gas.
Source: SOVA News