Wind, solar power plants to be installed on idle treasury lands

ANKARA

Wind and solar power plants will be installed on a total of 300 million square meters of idle treasury lands, Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum has said.

“We will bring 300 million square meters of treasury land, which is inactive and unsuitable for agriculture, to our economy,” Kurum said on Twitter, adding that it will be “both environmentally friendly and economical.”

Wind and solar power plants will be built on these lands, the minister said, adding that it will provide 20,000 megawatts of renewable energy generation.

Türkiye’s electricity consumption rose by 12 percent in 2021 to 327 billion kilowatts per hour, while the country’s production also increased by 12 percent to around 329 billion kilowatts per hour.

The latest data from the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) showed that the installed capacity, including licensed and unlicensed power plants, stood at 103,276 MW as of the end of October.

The country relies on fossil fuel imports for half of its power generation that can be halved by 2030 with a faster transition to clean power sources, London-based think-tank Ember said in a report.

Solar power in particular needs to be a vital component of this transition, it added, noting that Türkiye generated 50 percent of its electricity from imported coal and gas in 2021.