Turkey to add 4,000 megawatts in 2015

ANKARA

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Turkey will add 4,000 megawatts to its electricity production capacity in 2015, 95 percent of which will be provided through local and renewable resources, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said in a statement on April 5.

The statement came days after a massive power outage affected more than 76 million people in 80 out of 81 Turkish provinces for up to nine hours on March 31.

Turkey’s installed electricity capacity was 69,520 megawatts in 2014 and the country aims to increase its share of local and renewable resources in electricity production to 30 percent by 2023, Yıldız said in the statement.

“Hydroelectricity power plants will contribute 1,500 megawatts, wind power plants 800 megawatts, geothermal resources 240 megawatts and bioenergy resources 50 megawatts to create the planned 4,000 megawatts capacity increase in 2015,” Yıldız said.

He also said the capacity of coal and asphaltite mineral resources would increase 1,200 megawatts, while 200 megawatts would be added through natural gas.

“Turkey’s electricity capacity and production are growing continuously. Within the first three months of this year, 1,000 megawatts came online. It is pleasing to note that local and renewable resources make up 90 percent of that capacity,” he said.

With the planned capacity increase, Turkey will have an installed electricity generation capacity of 73,600 meg