Turkey holds the potential to increase its currently installed solar power capacity by a further 46 gigawatts (46,000 megawatts) on roof space covering 1.1 billion square meters, head of the Turkish section of the Solar Energy Society said Thursday.
Speaking at a Solar Roof-Top panel at the 24th International Energy and Environment Fair and Conference in Istanbul, Kutay Kaleli stated that Turkey's solar rooftop market is on the rise.
Because of newly revised legislation in January that enables residential utility customers to supply their own electricity, Turkish households are preparing to produce solar energy by installing rooftop and solar facade panels.
Turkish citizens are now allowed to install solar panels with a maximum capacity of 10 kilowatts with less red-tape in accordance with Turkish Energy Market Regulatory Authority's (EMRA) revised legislation.
Electricity distribution companies will process new applications from customers for solar installations. These companies are obliged to immediately approve the installation for up to 3 kilowatts of solar capacity if the application complies with the necessary regulations. If the capacity is between 3 kilowatts and 10 kilowatts, the distribution company will base their decision to go ahead on the availability of the distributing transformer capacity.
Kaleli said that Turkey has 1.1 billion square meters of rooftop space that is available for the installation of solar panels.
'This size allows for potentially installing 46,000 megawatts of installed solar capacity on rooftops. This potential is half of Turkey's current installed electricity capacity,' he said.
At the end of March 2018, Turkey's installed electricity capacity was 86,000 megawatts.
'Furthermore, if we can integrate storage technologies to this capacity, we need nothing more [to cover our power demands],' Kaleli noted.
'This may be a dream. However, even if we can create 1,000-1,500 megawatts per year in the next decade or so, Turkey will come to a very significant point in terms of solar capacity,' he emphasized.
With electricity consumption rising each year, Turkey is seeking to decrease its energy bill, which currently stands at around $60 billion annually. As part of the country's energy strategy, Turkey seeks to increase installed electricity capacity to 110,000 megawatts by 2023, from its current level of around 86,000 megawatts.
By Nuran Erkul Kaya
Anadolu Agency
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