-What are the main types of renewable energy deployed in Turkey? What are the trends in terms of technology preference and size of facility?

According to the statistics of TEIAS published in January 2021, the main renewable energy sources in Turkey are, respectively, hydro, wind and solar energy. The share of renewables in the gross electric power generation in 2020 was approximately 42%. Although hydroelectric power plants has longer existence in the Turkish renewable energy sector, wind has also become a significant energy source in the Turkish energy market. With the unlicensed solar generation trend, solar energy gained speed and rapidly became the third most used renewable energy source. According to the latest information:

-hydro energy plants provides 30,993.8 MW;
-wind energy plants provides 9,007.4 MW; and
-solar energy plants provides 6,805.8 MW,
of installed capacity.

Renewable energy sources constituted 98% of the 4,900 MW of the total installed capacity which was commissioned in 2020. Turkish renewable energy installed capacity reached 49,500 MW and the share of the total installed renewable capacity now stands at 51.7%.

-What role does the energy transition have in the level of commitment to, and investment in, renewables?

As in many other countries, energy transition is also a hot topic in Turkey. In particular, international private companies are keen on reaching net-zero carbon targets in line with their international targets. However, private companies are enthusiastic to reach such targets mainly for marketing or social responsibility reasons. There is no official government target on carbon emissions.

On the other hand, due to potential carbon tax regulations to be executed by the EU Member States within the scope of the European Green Deal, private companies exporting goods to EU Member States are searching for ways to reduce carbon emissions and this may have an impact on accelerating the energy transition.

-What is the legal and regulatory framework for the generation, transmission and distribution of renewable Energy?

Generation, transmission and distribution of renewable energy are not regulated under a separate legislation but by the main electricity legislation namely Electricity Market Law, Electricity Market License Regulation and other secondary regulations which structure the market.

-What are the main challenges that limit investment in, and development of, renewable energy projects?

Depending on the type of the renewable investment, whether utility scale or distributed project, there are several obstacles that are limiting investments. The most important difficulty is the capacity shortcomings in transmission systems.

Although expedition of the installation process of distributed energy facilities was offered and aimed, in practice, lack of cooperation among official institutions and their limited sector based know-how prolong paperwork procedures for such projects.

Due to features of distributed generation facilities, there are financial bottlenecks in financing such facilities and the potential owner must invest equity capital into the project.
Additionally, antidumping regulations for imported equipment is also a major challenge for renewable projects.

-To what extent is Turkey’s energy demand met through domestic renewable power generation

According to recent information, approximately 42% of the gross energy generation in 2020 has been met by renewable sources namely hydro, wind, solar and geothermal.

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