1,000 units standalone power systems to be built

ANKARA — Some 2,000 applicants have filed requests with power distributors in Turkey to allow them to produce their own electricity. So far 1,100 requests have been approved according to the head of an association representing Turkey's offthe- grid electricity producers. "People or legal entities producing their own geothermal energy will reach a 300 MW installed capacity by the end of 2014," Yalçın Kıroğlu said Wednesday. Under recently passed legislation, individual companies can generate over 1 megawatt of electricity by using wind turbines, solar panels or biomass technologies and also sell any surplus to regional distribution companies.With electricity consumption rising each year, Turkey is seeking to decrease its energy bill, which currently stands at $60 billion annually. Also the government is attempting to increase its installed electricity capacity to 100,000 megawatts by 2023, from its current capacity of 64,000 megawatts.