• Province based installed power (MW)

    1000 Thermal Wind Hydraulic Waste

Energy

Much of the electricity consumed in Turkey is generated from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, lignite, and natural gas. Turkey does not have large fossil fuel reserves, so its energy sector depends highly on imports from other countries like Russia and Azerbaijan. The total installed power in Turkey is about 60,000 MW; 35% of this is from hydraulic power, 4% from wind power, and the rest (61%) from fossil fuel power (coal, natural gas, etc.).

In recent years Turkey has been increasingly investing in hydraulic, wind and solar energy (the renewable energy resources) in order to reduce its dependency on foreign fossil fuels. The country has relatively high potentials in hydraulic and wind energy and quite high potential in solar energy.

The climate change projections indicate that:

Turkey has a total of 35,000 MW hydraulic potential. The present installed power is about 20,000 MW, so it has 15,000 MW more potential to utilize. Projected reductions in water potentials of the major basins of Turkey, such as the Euphrates and Tigris, will have a negative effect in the generation of power from hydraulic resources.

The installed wind power in Turkey is about 2,400 MW. As of 2013, another 600 MW capacity is under construction. According to the General Directorate of Renewable Energy, Turkey has about 48,000 MW wind energy potential (8,000 MW high efficient plus 40,000 MW medium efficient). Much of this potential lies in the western parts of Turkey, especially in Çanakkale, Balıkesir, and İzmir. Climate change projections suggest that the wind potential will increase in the northwestern part of Turkey where it is already high.

The solar energy potential of Turkey is roughly equivalent to 56,000 MW installed natural gas power plant. This is very close to the current total installed power in Turkey. In the future, there will be a slight increase in the solar energy potential across Turkey.