Wind energy drives Turkey’s power

Wind energgy plants constitute 41 percent of the 958 megawatt electricity generation capacity, which became operational in the first quarter of 2017. The initiatives of the Ministry of Energy to exploit the domestic and renewable energy resources to bring them to the economy have started to bear fruit.

According to the data compiled from the data released by the ministry, the installed electricity power reached 79,000 megawatts in the first quarter of 2017. During the said period, an additional capacity of 958 megawatts brought to the installed capacity. This capacity stood at 858 megawatts last year during the same period.

41 percent (395.6 megawatts) of the installed power that became operational during January-March period of 2017 was provided by wind power, which is the source of energy that has made the largest contribution to the installed power of energy. During the first quarters, 38 wind power plants started to operate in different cities.

The largest of those plants was AIRRES – 4 plant with a capacity of 41.6 megawatts, which was launched for operation in K?rklareli, the western border city in northern Marmara. On the other hand, Albayrak announced that, within the scope of ‘National Energy and Mining Policy,’ a capacity of 10,000 megawatts will be separately put into use in both the wind and solar energy in the next 10 years.

Recalling the tender held last month for the Karap?nar Renewable Energy Resource Area (YEKA), a 1,000-megawatt solar energy power plant to be installed in central province Konya, Albayrak said that the specifications for a wind power plant within the framework of renewable energy resource areas will be announced in a week or two.

“We have met with many a large wind power generator company and will announce the specification, which will be shaped in accordance with the results of negotiations.We will also put YEKA application into practice in the wind power before the end of this summer. We will open the way for an enormous domestication of wind turbine technology, which has about 8,000 different components,” Albayrak added.