Turkey awards 2,787 megawatts of wind and solar power

A new allocation process of 2,787 megawatts of wind and solar energy has been completed, said the head of Turkey’s Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK), Mustafa Y?lmaz.

“We will jointly implement a renewable energy investment of $5 billion in 1.5 to 2 years at the latest,” he said.

An EPDK statement, in which Y?lmaz’s comments were also included, said the authority signed another critical decision that will increase the share of Turkey’s domestic and renewable energy resources in electricity production.

After reviewing the connection capacities announced in the field of energy resources areas (YEKA) wind power plants (WPP)-3 and YEKA solar plants (SPP)-5, the EPDK was informed of the released capacity of 2,787 megawatts .

Y?lmaz further noted that the requests to be made for the capacities will be notified to the Turkish Electricity Transmission Company (TEIA?) on a monthly basis.

“The importance of renewable and domestic energy sources is increasing day by day,” he said, reiterating that “whoever invests in renewable and domestic energy in Turkey will never regret it.”

“With this decision that we have made as a board, we have opened the way for an important capacity for our country,” he added.

Y?lmaz emphasized that now “it is time for investors to roll up their sleeves. We have no doubt that these investments will come to life in 1.5-2 years at the latest. I hope that this decision, which also contributes to our net zero carbon emission goal , it will be beneficial to our industry and our nation.”

The capacity of renewable energy resources in Turkey has increased significantly in recent years to contribute to the fight against global climate change and the development of clean energy technologies.

Some 97% of Turkey’s electricity generating capacity that came online last year came from renewable power plants.

In total, 3,446 megawatts (MW) of licensed power generation capacity were activated in Turkey in 2021, according to data from the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.

Wind plants represented 51.5% of this capacity with 1,772 MW and solar plants 14.5% with 498 MW.

While the share of biomass, waste heat and geothermal power plants in the licensed electricity generation capacity put into operation last year was 16.6%, thermal power plants, with 101.8 MW, constituted 3% of the capacity.

Turkey’s total installed electrical capacity reached 99,820 MW by the end of 2021.

The capacity of thermal power plants within the total installed power decreased by 117 MW in 2021 compared to the previous year and was reduced to almost 46,193 MW.