Turkey becomes 6th country in Europe to reach 100 GW in electricity capacity

Turkey is the sixth country in Europe and 14th in the world that crossed the 100 GW mark in combined power plant capacity. In the past four years, 86% of the additions were from renewable sources.

The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources said Turkey more than tripled its electricity generation capacity since 2002, to 100.3 GW. The data from the end of March showed hydropower has the largest share, 31.5 GW, followed by natural gas-fired facilities, 25.5 GW, and plants using domestic coal, 11.4 GW.

Wind power came in fourth (10.9 GW). Next on the list are power plants using imported coal (9.5 GW), solar power plants (8.3 GW) and geothermal systems (1.7 GW).

Photovoltaics lead in capacity additions since 2018, at 4.4 GW

Renewables now have a share of 54% in total capacity (compared to 38.6% in 2002) or 65% excluding foreign resources, according to the announcement.

The ministry revealed green power made up 86% of the investments in the sector in the past four years, with 14.5 GW. It registered 4.4 GW in new photovoltaics since 2018. Wind is not far behind, with 4.11 GW, trailed closely by hydropower’s 4.11 GW. Biogas accounted for 1.36 GW and new geothermal power plants had a combined 589 MW in capacity.

Turkey is the sixth country in Europe and 14th in the world to surpass the 100 GW level, the government said.

Karapınar solar power plant nearing half of planned capacity

Of note, Kalyon has installed 628 MW so far in its Karapınar solar power plant in the Konya province, south of Ankara.

Total nameplate (direct current) capacity is planned to reach 1.35 GW by the end of the year. It translates to 1 GW in alternating current (AC), which is the maximum that the facility will be able to deliver to the transmission network. Karapınar is set to become the seventh power plant of its kind in the world by size.

Hellenic Petroleum has just commissioned the largest solar park in neighboring Greece – 204,3 MW. Europe’s biggest photovoltaic plant is Núñez de Balboa in Spain, with 500 MW in nominal power.