The economic size of investments in Turkey’s renewable energy sector, which reached a capacity of 52 thousand 353 megawatts by the end of August, reached 66 billion dollars.
According to the information compiled by AA correspondent from the data of Turkey Electricity Transmission AŞ (TEİAŞ), Turkey’s installed electricity capacity reached 98 thousand 493 megawatts and the total number of electricity generation plants reached 10 thousand 101 as of the end of August.
Of this capacity, 31 thousand 441 megawatts were hydroelectric, 10 thousand 14 megawatts wind energy, 7 thousand 435 megawatts solar energy and 1650 megawatts geothermal power plants. The capacity of biomass (including waste heat) power plants was 1813 megawatts as of the end of August.
Thus, 32 percent hydroelectric power, 10.2 percent wind power, 7.5 percent solar power, 1.7 percent geothermal power plant and 1.8 percent biomass power plant constituted 32 percent of the electricity installed capacity.
The leader of capacity increase was wind
The share of renewable power plants in total electricity capacity rose to 53.15 percent as of the end of August.
In the January-August period this year, the total installed power, including 1182 megawatts of wind, 768 megawatts of solar energy, 457 megawatts of hydroelectricity, 328 megawatts of biomass (including waste heat) and 37 megawatts of geothermal, increased by 2,602 megawatts compared to the end of 2020.
During this period, 221.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity was produced in Turkey.
42.7 billion kilowatt-hours of the said production was obtained from hydroelectric power, 19.5 billion kilowatt-hours of wind, 9.4 billion kilowatt-hours of solar power, 7.1 billion kilowatt-hours from geothermal power plants and 4.8 billion kilowatt-hours from biomass power plants.
Thus, in the January-August period this year, 37.75 percent of the electricity was met by renewable energy plants.
Resources determine the potential of regions
While most of the potential in wind energy is located in the Aegean and Marmara regions, 1715 megawatts of the installed power in this area are in İzmir, 1296 megawatts in Balıkesir, approximately 899 megawatts in Çanakkale, 699 megawatts in Manisa and 477 megawatts in Istanbul.
Şanlıurfa, which has the highest hydroelectric capacity with 3,128 megawatts, was followed by Elazig with 2,445 megawatts, Diyarbakir with 2,251 megawatts, Adana with 1906 megawatts and Artvin with 1815 megawatts.
Konya, the capital of solar energy, took the lead with a capacity of 964 megawatts, followed by Ankara with 393 megawatts, Şanlıurfa with 379 megawatts, Kayseri with 339 megawatts and İzmir with 298 megawatts.
The highest installed power in geothermal energy concentrated in the Aegean Region was built in Aydın with 848 megawatts. Aydın was followed by Manisa with 379 megawatts, Denizli with 378 megawatts, Çanakkale with 30 megawatts, İzmir with 12 megawatts and Afyonkarahisar with 3 megawatts.
In terms of biomass capacity, Istanbul with 207 megawatts, Ankara with 123 megawatts and Izmir with 84 megawatts stood out as the top 3 cities.
The economic size of the sector is increasing
Investment values in renewable energy vary according to the source of the power plant, the difficulties encountered in the area to be invested, the technology to be used, the impact of global costs, the variability in commodity prices and incentive applications.
According to the calculation made by the Renewable Energy Investors Association (GUYAD), taking into account the aforementioned parameters, Turkey’s total renewable energy capacity of 52 thousand 353 megawatts reached as of the end of August, with an investment volume of 66 billion dollars.
Of this investment, 35 billion dollars was realized in hydroelectric, approximately 13 billion dollars in wind, 10 billion dollars in solar energy, 6 billion dollars in geothermal and 2 billion dollars in biomass sector.
Leading companies in renewable energy
The company with the highest installed hydroelectric power in Turkey was Elektrik Üretim AŞ, a public company with a capacity of 13,993 megawatts, followed by Cengiz Holding in the private sector with 1443 megawatts.
In wind energy, Borusan EnBw ranked first with 660 megawatts, and Demirer Energy ranked second with 613.7 megawatts.
Kalyon Energy was the investor with the highest capacity in solar energy with 398 megawatts, followed by Cengiz Holding with 173.6 megawatts.
Zorlu Enerji with a capacity of 305 megawatts and Gürmat with 206 megawatts came to the fore in geothermal.
In biomass, ITC with a capacity of 130 megawatts and ISTAÇ with an installed capacity of 92.8 megawatts became the first two companies with the highest capacity.
