Turkish renewable additions at new high

Turkish renewable installed capacity in July grew at its fastest rate in at least three years as the commissioning of large-scale hydropower plants, paired with stronger wind and solar additions provided support.

Renewable capacity expanded by 769MW last month, against 228MW in June and just 89MW a year earlier. This was also much faster than unit additions in the first half of this year, which averaged 190MW/month (see chart).

Additions came mostly from hydropower units, as combined-storage hydro and run-of-river capacity rose by 610MW to 29.77GW. Operational capacity at state-owned Euas' Ilisu hydro plant rose to 800MW last month from just 200MW at its launch in May. The facility is expected to reach 1.2GW capacity by the end of this year. At the same time, the 420MW Cetin hydro plant reached capacity after its partial commissioning in the second quarter.

Wind capacity grew by 88MW to 7.97GW last month, against 67MW in June and 12MW a year earlier. At the same time, solar capacity rose by 65MW to 6.23GW, growing at its fastest on a monthly basis since December.

Renewable additions could remain strong over the remainder of the year as more developers look to quicken construction at their planned facilities to ensure their units are eligible for Turkey's Yekdem feed-in-tariff scheme. Yekdem only covers units that come on line before the end of this year.

Solar capacity is expected to expand by around 400MW in July-December, against 172MW in the first six months, amid a gradual easing of Covid-19 related supply and construction disruptions, solar association Gunder said last month.

The government earlier this year said that it is considering extending Yekdem beyond the end of 2020. But energy minister Fatih Donmez said in July that Yekdem would be replaced by a different support mechanism, without giving further details.

The government is reviewing a request from renewable plant operators to extend Yekdem, solar association Guyad said last month. Renewable associations repeatedly requested an extension of the scheme, initially because of financing and macroeconomic concerns but more recently to compensate plant developers affected by pandemic-related disruptions.

By Bilal Muftuoglu

Turkish renewable additions MW