Türkiye produces enough electricity from wind and solar power plants to meet the annual needs of all households in the country, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced Wednesday.
The installed capacity of wind and solar energy has grown from virtually zero in the early 2000s to over 31,000 megawatts (MW) today, Bayraktar said via a written statement released by the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry.
Bayraktar said Türkiye's electricity demand increased by an average of 4.4% per year over the last 20 years and has now reached 335 billion kilowatt-hours (KWh). He said that the public and private sectors have invested heavily in infrastructure to meet the increase in demand.
In the first 10 months of the year, a total of 289.4 million megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity was generated. Electricity production from domestic sources reached 61.7% with 178.5 million MWh, up from 57.1% in the same period of last year.
Türkiye, ranking among the top 11 globally and fifth in Europe for renewable energy capacity, has increased its solar energy installed capacity to 19,005 megawatts, accounting for 16.6% of the country's total installed capacity, the ministry added. This compared to a share of 10.5% recorded in October last year.
Türkiye aims to increase installed wind and solar capacity to 120,000 megawatts by 2035, requiring a nearly $80 billion investment.
