Renewable energy technologies are expected to play an increasingly important role in Turkey’s future energy mix. The Turkish government has recently laid the regulatory foundations for renewable market development; building on these foundations, many renewable energy companies and investors will find attractive business opportunities in hydro, wind, solar and geothermal projects.
Turkey’s rapid economic growth over the past years has created a strong demand for new power generation capacity. The country will need nearly 50 GW of additional and replacement capacity between now and 2020. To lessen its strong dependence on energy imports, primarily natural gas, the government aims to diversify Turkey’s power mix with an increased use of domestic, renewable energy resources.
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Do you want to learn more about business opportunities in the Turkish renewable energy market? Get in touch with us to receive a free copy of our Turkey country profile or contact directly Project Manager Matthias Kittler.
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Renewable energy resources in Turkey are vast and diverse.
Hydro has a long history in Turkey and plays a major role in the country’s power generation, accounting for 25% of produced power. At present, business opportunities can best be found in small hydro projects.
In addition to the traditional hydro business, Turkey has emerged as a large market for wind energy in recent years. With more than 1.5 GW of installed capacity and approximately 7 GW of new licenses for wind power generation, Turkey is set to become a one of the top-ten markets for wind energy in next 5 years.
As of today, solar power generation plays no role in Turkey. Given the country’s high annual irradiation, however, the long-term potential for solar power is immense. The Turkish solar hot water market is already world’s second largest, trailing only the Chinese market. In 2011 alone, Turkey installed 1.6 m² of solar collectors.
Under the existing regulation, photovoltaic (PV) installations can receive a feed-in tariff (FIT) of 13.3 USD cent/kWh. Though the PV FIT is relatively low compared to other countries, many factors suggest that the Turkish market will begin to expand quickly. A key driver for this expectation is the close proximity of PV to “grid parity” in Turkey. PV power can already be competitive with the power price that consumers pay for conventional power supply (for example, about 15–18 USD cent/kWh for commercial consumers). Commercial power consumers suffer under high electricity tariffs in Turkey and, as a result, have a particularly strong interest in PV power supply because it provides them electricity at cheaper and constant prices in long terms.
Turkish and international companies are already exploring opportunities and building alliances to benefit from this new and promising solar market. Recent announcements of Gehrlicher Solar’s joint venture with Merk Solar Enerji’s and Phoenix Solar’s partnership with iRES Enerji’s stand to verify this outlook.
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Do you want to learn more about business opportunities in the Turkish renewable energy market? Get in touch with us to receive a free copy of our Turkey company profile or contact directly Project Manager Matthias Kittler.
