Some $10 bln invested in solar power over a year

ANKARA

Around $10 billion has been invested in solar power over the past year triggered by a new regulation, Mustafa Yılmaz, head of the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) has said.

Amendments in the unlicensed electricity generation regulation in August last year facilitated consumers to generate power for their own consumption, Yılmaz noted. The regulation also allows consumers to sell the electricity they generated.

From households to industrial facilities, there has been a strong interest in producing power from renewable energy resources, he added.

“Appetite for solar power well exceeded expectations over the past year with investments amounting to $10 billion.”

With the new regulation, a wide range of electricity consumers, including tourism businesses, agricultural producers, have become the producer of electricity and they are allowed to install solar power facilities anywhere in the country, Yılmaz said.

Over a period of one-year, unlicensed capacity was allocated to more than 14,000 facilities with a total installed capacity of 12,000 MW in 12 months, according to Yılmaz.

With more than 2,000 MW power coming online, the total installed capacity of the unlicensed electricity generation facilities reached 13,500 MW, he added.

Türkiye’s total electricity installed capacity reached 105,135 MW as of July, the data from the Energy Ministry show.

Some 55 percent of Türkiye’s installed capacity is composed of renewable energy resources.

Hydropower account for 30 percent of this capacity, while the share of solar power is 9.9 percent.

Türkiye aims to increase the share of renewable energy within its installed capacity to 65 percent by the year 2035.