Türkiye’s installed solar power capacity expected to reach 30 GW by 2030

ISTANBUL

Türkiye’s installed solar power capacity, which stood at 7.82 GW in 2021, is expected to increase to 30 GW by 2030, the International Solar Energy Community Türkiye Section (GÜNDER) has said in SolarPower Europe’s “Global Market Outlook 2022-2026” report.

Türkiye is one of the fastest-growing energy markets in the world and its total energy demand has been increasing rapidly, the report underlined. “In answer to many concerns – climate change, the health effects of air pollution, energy security, volatile oil prices – the country is looking at developing renewable technologies and solar PV comes as one of the pioneers of the future energy mix.”

The country’s solar power capacity will reach between 10 GW and 11 GW in 2022, and it will continue to at least 13 GW in 2023, it said.

“Under that scenario, sectoral employment and qualified workforce will increase, domestic module technologies and production industry capacity will develop, and all of these will enable Turkey to become the regional solar energy leader,” it said.

Moreover, the capacity increase in solar energy will be supported by the development of storage systems in Türkiye, according to GÜNDER.

It noted that the trend toward rooftop solar energy investments increased in 2021. “We anticipate that the rise will continue in 2022 as well.

According to industry and public stakeholders, there is at least 20 GW of technical potential for rooftop solar in buildings in Türkiye, and we expect at least 10 GW to be put into operation in the coming years.”

Solar energy is one of the most valuable renewable energy sources, which is still untapped in Turkey with an expected potential of at least 500 GW, it said.

At the end of 2021, Türkiye had almost 100 GW of installed electricity generation capacity and solar PV accounted for 7,816 MW. This represents an annual increase of 1,148 MW compared to 2020, which allowed solar PV to reach 7.8 percent of all Turkish generation capacity.

The biggest challenge in the sector is to have access to finance for deployment and manufacturing of solar PV, it said, adding that renewable energy projects stand out as technology-intensive investments that can be developed primarily with the appropriate legislation and technologies.