Energy efficiency upgrades in Türkiye’s public buildings are showing measurable benefits, according to the World Bank-funded Türkiye Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings project. The initiative aims to reduce energy consumption and emissions by renovating central government buildings such as offices, hospitals, and schools.
The project has retrofitted over 370 buildings, resulting in an average energy use reduction of 40%, surpassing its original targets. As of September 2025, approximately 165,000 people who use these facilities are experiencing improved comfort.
One example is the Ortaköy 80th Year Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School near Ankara. After implementing measures such as triple-paned windows, enhanced insulation, LED lighting, upgraded heating systems, and solar panels in 2021, the school cut its electricity consumption from the national grid by up to 70%. Levent Hıdır, deputy headmaster of the school, said: “Before this project, the temperatures inside the classrooms were very low. Even if we turned the radiators to the highest level, the classrooms wouldn’t heat up. There was absenteeism. Some students had to repeat a grade or even drop out because of these reasons. Now those numbers have decreased. Our classrooms are warm inside. Their comfort has increased, and students come more willingly.”
Similar improvements have been made at Kandira State Hospital in Kocaeli province. With new heating and cooling systems funded by the World Bank and more than 400 solar panels installed, energy consumption dropped by 30%, eliminating 420 tonnes of carbon emissions within a year. Gürol Aydemir, Financial Affairs Director at Kandira State Hospital stated: “We’ve achieved substantial savings in our energy costs—savings that we are able to use for other expenses such as medicines and cleaning services. In a country dependent on energy, the 30% savings we achieved here are extremely valuable to us.” Chief Physician Dr. Bülent Uysal added: “Our old fluorescent lighting systems consumed a lot of energy but provided little light and caused considerable noise pollution. People used to complain about this. Since the entire hospital has been converted to LED lighting we have received no such complaints.”
Following these results, Türkiye plans to extend renovations across all public buildings—about half a million structures—with an estimated investment need of $8.8 billion from both donors and private sector partners.
The program’s first phase trained over 3,500 people for technical roles in energy services and construction; further expansion is expected to create additional job opportunities nationwide.
Esra Turan Tombak from Türkiye’s Ministry of Environment highlighted evolving goals for reducing public building energy consumption: “In line with our net-zero target for 2053, the government initially set a goal to reduce energy consumption in public buildings by 15% by 2030. This was later revised to 30%, and we now see that with proper energy efficiency measures, savings of up to 40% are possible.”