Turkey’s solar power capacity has doubled to over 18 gigawatts (GW) in two-and-a-half years, beating its 2025 target by 18 months, with self-consumption installations accounting for nearly 90 percent of new capacity since 2022, according to a report by the London-based energy think tank Ember, published on Tuesday.
A significant regulatory change in August 2022 that allowed solar facilities to be built in different distribution zones than their consumption sites helped drive the expansion. Before the change, doubling Turkey’s solar capacity took 51 months, but afterward it was achieved in just 30 months.
The Ember report found that unlicensed, self-consumption solar projects drove most of the capacity growth after the 2022 regulatory change removed restrictions on facility locations.
Most new installations came from businesses building solar facilities outside their consumption zones, allowing them to offset electricity costs through net metering while benefiting from tax breaks and Value Added Tax (VAT) exemptions.
Rising energy costs have pushed businesses to invest in solar power to reduce dependence on conventional sources. The government has supported this transition through regional incentives and tax benefits for both large and small-scale projects.
Experts say falling costs in solar panel manufacturing and energy storage have made these investments increasingly attractive.
The Turkish government has rolled out a comprehensive incentive package for solar projects, focusing particularly on unlicensed installations that have driven recent growth.
Solar projects currently receive tax reductions, interest rate support and duty waivers. However, starting September 2024 these incentives will only be available for projects using domestically produced solar panels, according to energy ministry officials.
Licensed projects, while eligible for basic tax benefits, do not receive the additional incentives given to unlicensed installations. Some developers of licensed projects can secure government-backed power purchase agreements to enhance investment security.
The solar expansion has saved Turkey $5.4 billion in natural gas imports over the past two-and-a-half years, while combined wind and solar generation prevented $15 billion in fossil fuel purchases, the Ember report found.
However, the rapid growth has strained the power grid. The Energy Ministry plans to build a 40,000-megawatt high-voltage power corridor at an estimated cost of $108 billion to improve distribution efficiency.
Turkey has raised its 2035 renewable energy target to 120 gigawatts of combined solar and wind capacity, up from an earlier goal of 53 gigawatts for solar and 29.6 gigawatts for wind.
However, while solar capacity has surged, wind energy expansion has lagged. Only 770 megawatts of wind capacity was added in 2024, bringing the total to 12.5 gigawatts — below the Energy Ministry’s 13.3-gigawatt target for the year.
Analysts say meeting the new combined target will require addressing the slower pace of wind energy development.
“Turkey beating its target for solar energy until 2025 – this shows that policy adjustment put into place by the country is working,” the report stated, quoting Bahadır Sercan Gümüş, a senior energy analyst at Ember and lead author of the report. “The fact that solar adoption accelerated this much proves that Turkey is well capable of expanding its renewable energy capacity faster when the incentives are there in place. However, further grid modernization and adjustment of the regulatory framework will be required to achieve this figure,” Gümüş added in the same report.