Generational Solar Energy Producers and Industry Association (GENSED) Secretary General Hakan Erkan stated that the installed solar energy capacity will exceed 20,000 MW by the end of the year with the operation of rooftop, field and hybrid power plants.
Assessing the solar energy sector, GENSED Secretary General Erkan said that 20,000 MW is large enough to meet the electricity needs of approximately 10 million households.
Noting that the target of installed solar and wind energy in Turkey is 120,000 MW by 2035, Erkan stated that in order to achieve this target, 4-5,000 MW solar power plants (SPP) should be established with additional capacity increasing every year.
Erkan stated that the highest growth in solar power plant capacity expansion worldwide is in China, and Turkey continues to rise to the top, saying, “The installed capacity of solar power plants, which was 14 thousand megawatts at the beginning of this year” and increased with the operation of rooftop, field and hybrid power plants “will exceed 20 thousand megawatts by the end of the year. There is an increase of approximately 6 thousand megawatts.”
Erkan stressed that the number and capacity of solar panel manufacturers in Turkey play an important role in the goal of increasing renewable energy in Turkey, and Erkan pointed out that providing special financing opportunities for solar energy projects will accelerate investments.
Erkan stated that the foreign exchange purchase guarantee was introduced again this year in the Renewable Energy Resources Zone (YEKA) projects in order to increase investments in the solar energy sector, and continued:
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“In a country where inflation is variable, the foreign exchange purchase guarantee will accelerate YEKA investments. Long periods with dollar purchase guarantees, such as 20 years, require escalation due to the annual inflation of the dollar. All these demands are to increase solar investments and reach the target. In addition, the network needs storage technologies. If we want to reach 120 thousand megawatts of solar and wind energy, the storage capacity must also be increased to a certain extent today. Today, we produce almost half of the natural gas and coal prices in solar energy. We definitely need to evaluate this.”
Erkan stated that the proposals for the new connection type “5.1.j” that they submitted to the Ministry due to the capacity constraints of transformers in unlicensed projects have been put on the agenda, so that solar power plants can be established at the same connection point for self-consumption without activating the grid and can be installed without being subject to the capacity constraints of the existing transformers, and that this situation is important for the sector.
Erkan stressed that the solar energy sector expects new regulations for agricultural SPP applications in Turkey, and emphasized that there are 3 agricultural SPP applications for pilot purposes in the country, and that increasing clean energy and agricultural production along with legislative regulations is very important for the future.
Erkan pointed out that the viability of solar projects depends on financing opportunities and said: “It is very important to provide long-term loans with very low interest rates with funds from abroad. Another regulation that will improve the sector is to shorten the licensing processes for projects. This is already on the agenda. If the regulations related to and with the acceleration of the permitting processes are completed during this year, both YEKA projects and solar energy projects with storage will be put into operation much faster. For example, the legislation on floating sustainable energy projects was published at the beginning of the year and there are currently many floating sustainable energy projects. “The implementation of the project has started with the issuance of licenses. We expect similar rapid progress in the agricultural solar power plant. The implementation of “5.1.j”, the new connection type that has no capacity restrictions in unlicensed projects, will make a significant contribution to the mobilization of the sector.”
According to the inventory of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, there are 75 photovoltaic panel factories in Turkey with an annual production capacity of approximately 44.5 GW.
Mono- and bifacial solar panels are widely produced in Turkey. Currently, three solar panel manufacturers produce 6.1 GW of “cell” annually domestically.
