Renewable Energy at Turkey

Alternative energy sources are becoming more and more desirable in the world as pollution has become a global threat and the primary energy sources such as oil, natural gas and coal are decreasing in supply. The renewable market in Turkey is still at an infant stage with the majority of electrical generation capacity still coming from thermal plants (66 percent of total installed capacity as of 2008). Hydro power plants contribute 33 percent, and the remaining 1 percent is from geothermal (0.1 percent) and wind (0.9 percent) sources as of end 2008.
Recent developments in Turkey such as the liberalization of the electricity market and improvements in the renewable legislations have opened the door for growth and investment opportunities in renewable energy sources. These developments coupled with the country's naturally endowed potential for solar, geothermal and wind energy resources, create a vast potential in this market.
In May 2005, the Law on Utilization of Renewable Energy Resources for Electricity Production No. 5346 was enacted for the decentralization of the renewable energy sector in Turkey. The law aims to increase renewable energy resources’ utilization and generate low cost, secure, and high quality electricity. Large HEPPs in terms of installed capacity are excluded from the law. The law enacts feed-in tariffs determined by EPDK for power plants in operation for less than 10 years. However, the tariffs for every energy resource are to be determined whereas diversification may be necessary and there is also a need for efficient tax and investment incentives. The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources has prepared a draft report to be presented to the Parliament in the first half of 2010, however, review of the law had not yet been achieved when the Parliament closed for vacation on July 23, 2010. Despite the delay in the incentives, there is a considerable interest from investors in the renewable energy sector.

As of 2008, total electricity installed capacity is 41,802.6 MW in Turkey. 33 percent of total installed capacity corresponds to hydroelectricity, 32 percent to natural gas, 24 percent to coal, and the remaining 11 percent to other resources

Hydroelectric Energy
The installed hydroelectricity capacity of the 213 HEPPs (14.3 GW) corresponds to approximately 36 percent of the country’s technical hydroelectricity potential of 44.2 GW. The electricity generated from the hydroelectric power plants amounted to 36 TWh in 200920.
77 percent of the total number of new licenses granted to the private sector in 2009 was for construction of new HEPPs. The majority of the HEPPs are owned and operated by the state. The rest is divided among BOT and TORs and the private sector players. In practice, licenses are usually granted for 49 years.

Wind
Turkey presents an attractive geography for wind energy investments. The Aegean and Marmara regions are the most attractive regions for wind energy power generation. The installed capacity of wind energy is 363.7
MW in 200821 and the total wind energy potential is estimated at 131,756 MW. 22
TEIAS projections for 2009-2018 include 4 different scenarios; with higher-lower capacity and higher-lower demand. According to the high capacity scenario of TEIAS, installed capacity of wind energy is expected to reach 1,012 MW by 2011 with a projected electricity generation of 3,176 GWh continuing to increase to 3,663 GWh in 201223
There has been a significant amount of interest in wind-based generation which has resulted in 1,118 license applications for a total of 86GW capacity since 2002. This high level of enthusiasm has further caused multiple applications for overlapping locations and capacities exceeding the supported limits. On November 1st 2007 alone, there were 725 such license applications amounting to a total capacity of 71.4 GW. Given the supported grid capacity of 7 GW according to TEIAS, the license applications need to undergo a technical review to decide on the feasibility of non-overlapping applications and for the overlapping license applications which have passed the technical reviews, TEIAS will make its decision through a tender bidding where the highest bidder will be granted the license for a WPP.
As of September 2009, there are a total of 105 WPP given and approved licenses, with a capacity of 4,237 MW. There are 727 licenses awaiting review, corresponding to 31,957 MW24

Geothermal
Turkey ranks 5th for the potential of geothermal resources and 7th for the utilization of these resources in the world. However, only 3 percent of the total potential (31,500 MW) is in use25. Two-thirds of the country’s geothermal resources are located in the Aegean region26.
Out of the licenses granted by EPDK in 2008, only one was for a geothermal plant, of 15 MW. Lack of technical expertise can be one of the main reasons for the low exploitation of geothermal resources in Turkey.
The exploration, development, ownership rights and economic use of geothermal resources are regulated by the Geothermal Resources and Mineral Waters Law No. 5686, enacted in 2007. Licensing and feed-in tariff issues, on the other hand, fall within the scope of the Electricity Market Law and Renewables Law.

Solar

Solar energy is mainly utilized as flat plate solar collectors for domestic hot water production despite the huge potential for electricity generation in Turkey. The photovoltaic generation application is insignificant: currently, the total photovoltaic generation capacity in Turkey is 5 MW27. Photovoltaic energy is used for signaling purposes and in rural areas such as the watch towers of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, light houses and lighting of highways.28
Turkey’s annual average insolation duration is estimated as 2,640 hours (7.2 hours/day) and the average annual solar radiation is 1,311 kWh/m²-year (3.6 kWh/m² per day) by EIE. Total solar energy production was 420 thousand TOE in 2007.