Renewable energy has been the main driver behind the growth in Türkiye's installed electricity capacity, with 88.1% of the net capacity increase between June 2025 and June this year coming from renewable sources, according to a report on Tuesday.
According to calculations by Anadolu Agency (AA) based on the Energy Market Regulatory Authority’s (EPDK) “Electricity Market Sector Reports” covering January-June 2025 and January-June 2026, it was found that capacity increased by over 6,300 megawatts (MW).
Türkiye's total installed electricity capacity, including both licensed and unlicensed facilities, stood at 119,740 megawatts at the end of the first half of 2025.
By the end of the first half of 2026, it had reached 126,113 megawatts, the report said.
This represents an increase of approximately 6,373 megawatts in the installed electricity capacity between the two periods.
Of this increase, 5,613 megawatts, or about 88.1%, came from renewable energy capacity.
Accordingly, renewable energy capacity increased from 73,195 megawatts to 78,808 megawatts during the same period, while its share of total installed capacity rose from 61.1% to 62.5%.
Solar and wind energy were the main drivers of growth in Türkiye's renewable energy capacity.
When licensed and unlicensed facilities are considered together, solar installed capacity increased from 23,573 megawatts to 27,210 megawatts over the past year, representing a net increase of approximately 3,637 megawatts.
Wind installed capacity also increased, rising from 13,476 megawatts to 15,281 megawatts, an increase of approximately 1,805 megawatts.
Like this, the combined 5,442-megawatt increase in solar and wind capacity accounted for approximately 97% of the growth in renewable energy capacity over the past year.
Growth in these two sources also accounted for 85.4% of the net increase in Türkiye’s total installed electricity capacity.
With this growth in solar capacity, solar moved into second place behind hydropower in Türkiye’s ranking of installed capacity by energy source. As of the end of June, hydropower capacity stood at 32.3 gigawatts, solar at 27.2 gigawatts, and wind at 15.3 gigawatts.
Biomass capacity stood at approximately 2.2 gigawatts, while geothermal capacity was around 1.8 gigawatts.
Moreover, the combined installed capacity of hydropower, solar and wind reached 74.8 gigawatts, accounting for approximately 59% of Türkiye's total electricity capacity.
The growth in installed capacity was also reflected in the composition of electricity generation during the first half of the year.
Total electricity generation from licensed and unlicensed facilities in Türkiye increased from 171.3 terawatt-hours (TWh) in the first half of 2025 to approximately 174.8 TWh during the same period in 2026.
Electricity generation from renewable sources, however, grew much more strongly.
Electricity generated from hydropower, wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal sources increased from 81.3 TWh in the first half of 2025 to 107.5 TWh in the same period of 2026.
As a result, electricity generation from renewable sources increased by 32.3% year-over-year, while their share of total electricity generation rose from 47.4% to 61.5%.
In other words, more than six out of every 10 units of electricity generated in Türkiye during the first half of 2026 came from renewable energy sources.
Hydropower made the largest contribution to the growth in renewable generation. Hydroelectric power generation increased from 33.9 TWh in the first half of last year to approximately 57 TWh, marking an increase of 67.9%. Hydropower's share of total electricity generation also reached 32.6%.
Wind power generation increased by 14.2%, from 18.8 TWh to approximately 21.5 TWh, giving wind a 12.3% share of total generation.
Total electricity generation from licensed and unlicensed solar facilities increased from 17.6 TWh to 18.3 TWh, accounting for 10.5% of total electricity generation.
Unlicensed electricity generation was another important component of the growth in Türkiye’s electricity capacity.
Unlicensed installed electricity capacity stood at 21,947 megawatts in June 2025, rising to 25,239 megawatts in June 2026. This represents an increase of approximately 3,292 megawatts, or 15%, in one year.
As of the end of June, 24,399 megawatts of unlicensed installed capacity came from solar energy. This means solar accounted for 96.7% of unlicensed electricity capacity.
The contribution of unlicensed facilities to electricity generation also increased. Gross electricity generation from unlicensed facilities rose from 13.8 TWh in the first half of 2025 to 14.6 TWh during the same period of 2026, an increase of approximately 6%.
The amount of unlicensed electricity generated and then supplied to and purchased by the grid as surplus after meeting on-site demand increased by 6.4% over the same period, reaching approximately 9.2 TWh.
Türkiye’s positive balance in electricity trade strengthened further during the first half of the year.
The difference between electricity exports and imports stood at approximately 980,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) during January-June 2025. During the same period this year, it reached 1.426 million MWh.
As a result, Türkiye’s net electricity exports increased by 45.5% compared with the same period last year.
