Turkey’s PV fleet surpasses 12 GW

Turkey’s operational solar fleet is growing in leaps and bounds, with 1,109 MW of new projects added in just the first two months of 2024. The achievement is particularly remarkable given that the country connected around 2 GW of solar in the entire preceding year.

“The PV additions in the first two months of 2024 alone reached approximately half of the capacity connected in the entire 2023,” the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources said in a press release last week.

The flurry of activity in the first two months of the year saw Turkey’s PV fleet grow to 12,425 MW, up from 11,361 MW at the end of 2023. Consequently, the share of renewable energy in electricity production surpassed 51% in January and February.

“Renewable energy will be the key to our full independence in energy. Our goal is to increase the installed capacity of renewable energy by 5,000 MW every year until 2035, with 3,500 MW coming from solar and 1,500 MW from wind,” said Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar.

Turkey’s goal is to increase the share of renewable energy in production to 65% by 2035, from 56% at present. The country generates around one-quarter of its power through hydro. The government has therefore initiated a shift from hydro to wind and solar, which was already evident in last year’s installation figures.

Turkey’s total added capacity came in at 2,858 MW in 2023, with wind and solar accounting for 99.5% of the total. The country’s fleet of renewable energy sources stood at 59.2 GW, with hydropower accounting for just under 32 GW, while wind and solar had a relatively equal share, with 11.8 GW and 11.3 GW, respectively, according to energy ministry data.

According to Bayraktar, the current rollout pace puts Turkey on course to reach its 2035 goals.

“We want to reach a total of 60,000 MW of newly installed power over the next 12 years, including 2024,” he said, stressing that renewable energy will be the key to Turkey’s energy independence.

Within the solar supply chain, Turkey is also striving toward self-sufficiency. It introduced anti-dumping duties for PV panels from China seven years ago, and as of last week, it started to charge $25 per square meter for PV equipment shipped from Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Croatia and Jordan.

In return, Turkey offers generous incentives and tax breaks to renewables developers that domestically source equipment and labor. The country boasts more than 60 PV module makers. In 2022, it ranked as the fourth-biggest solar manufacturer, with around 8 GW of capacity.