Türkiye to invest $80 billion in renewables in next decade
ANKARA
The total amount of major investment drive for electricity generation from renewable energy will be around $80 billion in the next 11 to 12 years, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said.
Speaking at parliament’s planning and budget commission the minister stressed that there is a need to shape the electricity generation portfolio in line with the 2053 net-zero emission targets while meeting the increasing electricity demand.
The Renewable Energy 2035 roadmap, unveiled last month, is designed to meet electricity demand, which is forecast to rise to 510 kWh in 2035 mainly with green energy, according to the minister.
“With this roadmap, we aim to quadruple our current wind and solar installed capacity to 120 thousand MW in the next 11 years,” he said, adding that it is necessary to have a strong infrastructure and network in order to technically manage the renewable energy capacity.
“In order to ensure our security of supply, we plan to invest around $28 billion in our electricity transmission infrastructure until 2035,” Bayraktar added.
With these investments, a 40,000 megawatt and around 15, 000 kilometers of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission network will be established to create a green energy corridor across Türkiye, according to the minister.
The country’s electricity demand has increased by an average of 4.4 percent annually over the past 20 years to 335 billion kWh, while the installed electricity generation capacity reached 114,600 MW, he noted.
Thanks to the policies implemented by the government, a localization level of 75 percent in the equipment and components used in solar power plants is achieved and this is over 70 percent in wind power plants, specifically in towers, blades and generators, Bayraktar said.
The minister also vows to speed up the process of granting renewable energy permits.
The share of renewable energy in the current installed capacity has reached 60 percent, Bayraktar said, adding that as a result of renewable energy-based electricity generation in the last year, Türkiye saved some $11 billion in natural gas imports.
Some 49 million tons of crude oil and petroleum products, 4 million tons of LPG and 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas were imported last year, while the country’s total energy import bill for 2023 was $70 billion, according to the minister.
Bayraktar also noted that Türkiye’s daily natural gas production has increased to 8 million cubic meters, which meets the needs of 3.5 million households.
“In 2025, we aim to carry out 143 exploration drillings. TPAO will invest over 143 billion Turkish Liras next year to expand our production areas, especially the Sakarya Gas Field and Gabar Region, and increase our production,” he said.
