Solar Power Investments in Turkey Could Reach $660 Million, IEA Says

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Turkey is trying to increase its use of renewable energy in the foreseeable future with the help of wind and solar power. According to a report from International Energy Agency (IEA), renewable energy sources will provide more of the world's electricity than gas-fired power plants by 2016. The IEA also predicts that renewables will provide 24% of the world's electricity in three years, ahead of gas and nuclear power. As renewable sources (hydro, wind and solar power) grow rapidly in emerging economies, investors in Turkey have also turned their attention to these new fields.

"There is immense potential in Turkey to harness solar energy. We expect investments in the field of solar power to reach $660 million by 2015," said Mehmet Ozer, president of Gunese, an energy industry association, in an interview with Star, a Turkish daily newspaper. "Renewed legislation favouring renewable energy investments has brought in a total of 8,900 megawatts (MW) capacity in license applications."

Last month, Turkey's Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA), received nearly 500 applications from investors to build solar power plants of up to 8,900 MW of combined output, surpassing expectations both in applications and power generation capacity. EMRA will begin granting licenses in the first half of next year.

Turkey's rising demand for energy, and the extra incentives granted for using locally manufactured equipment for power generation, also tempted hardware producers to set up a base in Turkey. China Sunergy (NASDAQ:CSUN) (Beijing, China), a Chinese manufacturer of photovoltaic modules, currently has a total production capacity of 100 MW in solar cells and 300 MW in solar modules at its Turkish facility. Last month, the company announced that it has begun shipping solar modules from its plant in Istanbul, and will deliver a total of approximately 6.4 MW modules in August 2013 to a well-known French customer.

According to the Ministry of Energy, Turkey aims to have 100,000 MW of installed capacity in 2023, a third of which will be generated using renewable sources.

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