Wind contributed to over 10% of Turkey's electricity: minister
This photo shows wind energy panels in Turkey, Feb. 21, 2021. (AA Photo)


Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Dönmez said Tuesday that wind energy contributed to over 10% of the country's total electric production for the first time.

"Our wind is blowing with records in 2021. For the first time in history, electricity generation from wind energy has exceeded 10% on a monthly basis. We obtained 10.7% of the electricity that we produced in January from the cool winds of Anatolia," Dönmez said on Twitter.

Turkey's installed wind energy capacity stood at 9,007 megawatts as of January.

Additionally, 49.5% of the electricity produced in Turkey came from domestic and renewable sources, according to the data shared by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources on Twitter.

Installed power increased by 380 megawatts in January compared with the previous month, reaching 96,271 megawatts, the data showed.

The implementation of new technologies along with financial backing and investments helped Turkey’s wind energy sector’s installed capacity surge tenfold over the last 10 years.

Turkey was ranked fifth in Europe in 2020 in terms of its renewable power capacity growth, and it is predicted to add 22.2 gigawatts (GW) by 2025 to reach 66.8 GW, according to the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Renewables 2020 report published in November.

The country was also ranked among the top five countries in Europe in terms of large-scale production plants for wind turbine equipment.