The perpendicularity of the mountains to the Aegean Sea makes the region appealing for wind power investment. In the Aegean region, İzmir has taken the lead in terms of wind power investment. One in every four plants currently under construction across Turkey is in İzmir, where the installed capacity of plants is around 613 megawatts.
President of the Turkish Wind Energy Association (TUREB), Mustafa Serdar Ataseven, said that Turkey's total installed electric energy capacity is 68,000 megawatts, 4,000 megawatts of which is provided from wind power. "Turkey is one of the top 10 countries in Europe in terms of installed capacity," Ataseven said. "We are one of the outstanding countries in the world after the recent developments. Both the European Wind Energy Association and the World Wind Energy Council says that Turkey has a fast growing wind power economy."
Despite positive developments, Turkey has still been unable to reach a satisfactory level according to Ataseven. "There are countries in the world meeting 35 percent of their total energy needs from wind. According to data from 2014, there is 91,000 megawatts of installed power in China, 61,000 in the U.S. and 35,000 in Germany. Denmark is aiming to meet 50 percent of its total energy needs from wind power by 2020. Renewable energy tops the world energy list and we hope the same for Turkey."
Turkey meets 72 percent of its energy demand through imports, which means foreign debt, said Ataseven, adding that "The most appropriate solution to this is to decrease imported energy to the minimum level by using our own resources."
