The Impact of the Government’s Incentives on Increasing Investment in Turkey's Solar Photovoltaic Power Plants

Abstract

Exhibiting a high economic growth rate in recent years, energy demand has increased rapidly in Turkey. Despite having a great potential in terms of renewable energy sources, Turkey has not utilized this potential sufficiently to meet this demand. However, among various renewable energy sources, the solar energy stands out in terms of investments and incentives in Turkey. In this study, the progress and the outlook of the renewable energy, especially photovoltaic systems in Turkey are reviewed considering the potential, the incentives and the investments. In this context, ratio of the Photovoltaic Solar Power Plants within both overall installed power and the total generated energy over the years is investigated geopolitically. Ongoing and planned investments for Photovoltaic Solar Power Plants and the incentives provided by the government are reviewed by considering the geographical regions of the country. It is observed that the installed power capacity of active solar photovoltaic power plants increases by more than four times compared to the previous year, as of the end of 2017, owing to incentives and investments. It is expected that the solar energy power capacity among the renewable energy sources contributes significantly to the total installed power capacity over the next few years in Turkey.