Renewable energy in Turkey

Renewables supply a quarter of energy in Turkey, including heat and electricity. Hot water from underground warms many spas and greenhouses, and some houses have rooftop solar water heating. In parts of the west hot rocks are shallow enough to generate electricity as well as heat. Wind turbines, also mainly near western cities and industry, generate a tenth of Turkey’s electricity. Hydropower, mostly from dams in the east, is the only modern renewable energy which is fully exploited. Hydropower averages about a fifth of the country's electricity, but much less in drought years. Apart from wind and hydro, other renewables; such as geothermal, solar and biogas; together generated almost a tenth of Turkey’s electricity in 2022. Over half the installed capacity for electricity generation is renewables. Turkey has a long history of wood burning, windmills, and bathing in hot springs. Many dams were built from the mid-20th to early 21st century, but some say that governments have not allowed civil society enough influence on energy policy, leading to protests against building dams, geothermal power plants, and at least one wind farm. Despite Turkey’s sunny climate solar power is underdeveloped. As the electricity system is already flexible increasing to 70% renewables is easily feasible.Solar power could be expanded more quickly if the electricity grid was improved faster and energy policy revised, especially by abolishing fossil fuel subsidies. Many hybrid power plants are planned, and batteries are being integrated. Companies with a lot of renewables include the state electricity generation company (mainly hydro), Aydem, and Kalyon. If renewables could help phase-out coal by 2030, instead of by the national net zero greenhouse gas emissions target year of 2053, that would have significant health benefits and reduce inflation in Turkey. As of 2022 renewables are not sufficient to meet that target year. Various electric vehicles are being manufactured, which will use some of the increased renewable generation and help reduce air pollution. As of 2024, renewables made up 44% of Turkey's electrical power production, consisting of 22% hydro, 8% solar, 11% wind, and 3% other. They are important for the country’s energy security.

Sources of renewable energy

Solar power

Wind power

Hydroelectricity

Geothermal energy

Bioenergy

Hybrid projects, storage and integration Solar is often added to existing power plants, such as geothermal, hydro, and wind. A solar and biomass hybrid is also feasible. Up to 15% of the existing installed capacity can be added without requiring a new licence, provided generation does not exceed that limit, although the extra capacity cannot receive a USD subsidy. There is a virtual power plant which operates with geothermal, wind, solar and hydro. Combining wind and/or solar with storage is also popular. Increasing Turkey's proportion of electric cars in use to 10% by 2030 would help integrate variable electricity. Transmission and distribution cables are at medium risk from earthquakes and transformers at high risk whereas solar is low risk: Think tank Shura suggests that microgrids of solar and batteries could increase resilience against earthquakes.

Future Wind, and especially solar, could supply much more energy in Turkey. It is estimated that over half of electricity generation could be from renewables by 2026, but Turkey has invested less in solar and wind power than similar Mediterranean countries. More renewable energy could be used to reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, and thus avoid paying other countries' carbon tariffs. Turkey is a net exporter of wind power equipment, but a net importer of solar power equipment. Total non-hydro renewables overtook hydro in 2021. Solar is expected to overtake wind before 2030. The Energy Minister said in 2023 that by 2035 renewables would supply almost a quarter of the nation’s energy. According to one study, by massively increasing solar power in the south and wind power in the west the country's entire electricity demand could be met from renewable sources. A 2022 simulation by Shura of typical spring 2030 generation shows that wind and nuclear could provide baseload, and solar much of daytime demand, reserving dammed hydro for evening flexibility. Other experts believe that nuclear power will keep the grid stable from fluctuations in variable renewable energy, while some state that more geothermal baseload capacity should be added. Think tank Ember said in 2022 that Turkey needs to expand renewables at least twice as fast, to decarbonize the electricity sector and lower import bills. In 2023 they said that solar power rollout should be accelerated in the sunny south. Shura states that renewables could generate 70% of electricity by 2030, with coal reduced to 5%. Many new 400kV transmission lines are planned to be built by 2030. The national energy plan published in 2022 expects an increase in the share of renewable energy and intermittent renewable energy sources in electricity generation to 55% and 34% respectively by 2035. According to the plan by 2035 installed capacity will increase to: 30 GW (25 GW onshore, 5 GW offshore) of wind power, and 53 GW of solar power. The plan is for installed capacity to increase to 35 GW of hydroelectricity and 5 GW total of geothermal and biomass power. The plan expects the share of renewable energy in primary energy consumption, which was 16.7% in 2020, to increase to 23.7% by 2035. The plan expects the share of electricity from variable renewable energy, which was 12% in 2020, to increase gradually to 34% by 2035.

Economics

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