Turkey increased its electricity production from local and renewables sources in the first half of 2019 to 66.2 percent compared to 50.8 percent for the same period last year, the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry confirmed yesterday.

Turkey produced 141.64 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in the first half of this year, of which 93.77 billion kWh came from local and renewable energy resources. The biggest share of these resources came from hydroelectric power plants at 35.77 percent.

Out of total production, local coal produced 16.94 percent, wind produced 7.25 percent, and 6.26 percent came from geothermal, solar and biomass sources.

Imported resources amounted to a 33.8 percent share in Turkey's electricity production in the first half. From the imported resources, the share of natural gas fell to 16 percent compared to 29 percent for the first half of last year.

The highest share of domestic resources used for electricity production was in May at 75 percent. Imports had the largest share of production in February, with 44.54 percent recorded during the month.

IMPORTS DECREASE BY 20 PERCENT

In the first half of this year, 141.1 billion kWh of electricity were consumed. During the same period last year, the figure reached 141.9 billion kWh.

In the first half of 2019, 989.4 million kWh of electricity was imported, while in the first half of last year, this figure was calculated as 1.23 billion kWh – an almost 20 percent reduction.

Electricity exports in the first six months of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018 showed an increase of 18 percent. Over this period, 1.61 billion kWh of electricity was exported. Last year, this figure was 1.36 billion kWh. Meanwhile, Turkey's installed power capacity reached 90 gigawatts (GW).

Being an energy importing country, Turkey has significantly increased investments in domestic and renewable resources over the years to decrease dependency on external resources for power generation and achieve the goal to raise the share of local and renewable resources in power generation.

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez said earlier in March the country aims to produce 60 percent to 70 percent of its electricity from renewable and local resources.

On the other hand, on the sidelines of G20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Transitions and Global Environment for Sustainable Growth in 2019 in Nagano, Japan last month, Dönmez said Turkey is looking to raise the share of domestic, renewable sources up to two-thirds of the country's electricity production by 2023.