Over 62% of Turkey’s power produced from local, renewable resources in 2020
Turkey’s Ilısu Dam on the Tigris in southern Mardin province, May 18, 2020. (DHA Photo)


Turkey produced 62.08% of its electricity from local and renewable sources from January through July this year, according to the data from the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry.

The country is approaching its goal of producing almost 66% of its electricity from local and renewable sources annually.

Some 162.13 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity was produced in the first seven months. In the same period of last year, the country produced 169.03 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.

In the first seven months of 2020, Turkey produced 100.65 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from local and renewable sources.

Last year, the country’s electricity production from local and renewable resources stood at 62%.

The share of natural gas stood at 17%. Imported coal had a share of 20.87% and domestic coal had a share of 14.89%.

In the same period, hydropower ranked first in electricity production with a 33.25% share and wind's share was around 9%.

The month with the highest share of domestic resources was April with 72%. The month in which imported resources had the largest share in production was recorded as January with 51.83%.

In the January-July period, 1.61 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity were imported. In the same period last year, this figure was calculated as 1.15 billion kilowatt-hours. Thus, Turkey's imports of electricity in the January-July period of this year increased by nearly 40% compared to the same period last year.

Electricity exports decreased by 38% compared to the same period last year. During the period, 1.08 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity was exported. In the same period of last year, this figure was 1.75 billion kilowatt-hours.

In addition, Turkey's total installed power capacity reached 92.01 gigawatts by the end of June 2020, according to official figures.

In just over a decade, Turkey has tripled its installed renewable capacity to around 45,000 megawatts and invested nearly $40 billion in renewable energy projects. Turkey ranks sixth in Europe and 13th in the world in terms of renewable capacity.

According to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), Turkey's renewable energy capacity of 42 gigawatts (GW) is predicted to reach 63 GW by 2024, placing Turkey among Europe's top five and 11th worldwide in terms of renewable capacity.