Turkey achieved the highest annual capacity increase in its history, with approximately 1.750 megawatts in wind energy last year.
The capacity of approximately 1.750 megawatts in wind energy, which was commissioned last year, was recorded as the highest capacity commissioned on an annual basis in Turkey.
With this increase, Turkey’s total wind energy installed power reached 10 thousand 750 megawatts by the end of 2021, and the total number of projects in operation reached 270.
Previously, In Turkey the annual capacity increase was 1.248 megawatts in 2016.
‘The construction of 30 projects continues’
Ebru Arıcı, President of the Turkish Wind Energy Association, stated that the FX-based incentive period of the Renewable Energy Resources Support Mechanism (YEKDEM) ended last year and said: “In order to benefit from YEKDEM, investors accelerated the commissioning of the power plants. Some power plants were put into operation with a single turbine. We call them ‘those who step in with imperfect power’. The construction of approximately 30 projects, which were activated with insufficient power, is currently underway. That equates to around 800 megawatts of capacity, a capacity that can be deployed quickly this year.”
‘There are 2,000 megawatts of applications for solar energy’
Stating that they had previously set a target of 1000 megawatts for annual wind capacity increase, Arıcı continued as follows:
“Last year’s record capacity increased by about 40 percent compared to the record in 2016. For this reason, we are now in a position to deploy 1500 megawatts per year very easily. In particular, incentives for the use of domestic equipment and Turkey’s carbon neutral targets will play an important role in this increase. This year’s trend will be set by the completion of power plants that have been commissioned with under powered, 600 megawatt capacity increases with licenses, and hybrids. Currently, there is a great movement in projects for the hybrid introduction of solar energy capacity in wind power plants. In this way, we know that there are approximately 2,000 megawatts of applications. I think some of that capacity in hybrids will be deployed this year.”
Emphasizing the importance of hybrid projects and unlicensed wind power plants for the continuity of the sector, Arıcı said, “The wind energy sector has lagged behind in unlicensed terms. We need to concentrate on this area, but one of the instruments that will enable the industrialist to use renewable energy is wind. For this reason, 2022 will be our year in the unlicensed as well,” he said.
The first use of wind energy was in 1998.
While the first wind power capacity in Turkey was commissioned in Izmir in 1998, the capacity that year was at the level of 9 megawatts. The installed power in wind energy, which was 19 megawatts in 2000, increased to 66 megawatts in 2006 and 239 megawatts in 2007.
In wind energy, the total installed power was 6,135 megawatts in 2016, and last year, 1241 megawatts of wind energy was created, reaching the level of 9,000 megawatts.