Almost all of Turkey’s installed power that has come online from January through March has stemmed from renewable resources, the country's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez said Monday.
“The proportion of renewable energy in installed power, which is increasing every day, is going toward 100%. In the first three months, 97.9% of our installed power came from renewable energy sources,” Dönmez said on Twitter.
Some 1,233 megawatts (MW) of energy capacity in the January-March period, of which 1,207 (MW) came from renewable energy resources, according to the infographic shared by the minister.
Nearly 63% of Turkey’s electricity produced throughout 2020 was generated from local and renewable resources, the government said last month.
Highly dependent on imports for its natural gas and oil needs, Turkey has made tremendous strides in renewable energy capacity over the past decade.
Its total installed power has tripled since 2002, when it stood at around 32,000 MW, and has surpassed 96,000 MW.
Renewable sources constituted 98% of the 4,900 MW of total installed capacity that came online in 2020. This took the overall renewable energy installed capacity to over 49,500 MW.
The country aims to increase its installed power by 10,000 MW over the next 10 years by conducting at least 1,000 megawatts of solar Renewable Energy Resource Zones (YEKA) tenders each year, Dönmez has said.
It most recently received record 709 applications for the 74 mini solar YEKA tenders that will cover solar plants with a total capacity of 1,000 MW, spreading across 36 different regions.
Investments in the tenders, known as YEKA GES-3, are forecasted to reach almost $1 billion (TL 8.08 billion).
The YEKA tenders are part of Turkey’s plan to aqcuire 65% of its energy needs from domestic and renewable sources by 2023.
