An easy win for Turkey: leaving behind imported coal

New wind and solar power installations in Turkey are now more cost-effective than operating existing coal plants that rely on imports. With international hard coal prices reaching a decade high and renewable costs falling, Turkey faces high import costs—potentially reaching 5 billion USD in 2021—while facing potential EU carbon border levies. Despite the economic viability of renewables, utility-scale solar growth is hindered by transformer capacity limits and restrictions on power purchase agreements.

• New wind and solar power generation in Turkey is now cheaper than the marginal cost of running existing imported coal plants, even without carbon pricing. The Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) for wind is 40.8 USD/MWh and solar is 51.9 USD/MWh, compared to an average marginal cost of 73 USD/MWh for imported coal plants.
• Turkey's reliance on imported hard coal has increased significantly, rising from a 7% share of power generation in 2010 to 21% in 2020. The country has 9 GW of installed capacity relying on imports, representing 45% of its total coal power capacity.
• Utility-scale solar investment in Turkey is obstructed by a lack of new capacity at transformers allocated for licensed solar power and restrictions on long-term power purchase agreements for large consumers. Consequently, 91% of total solar installed capacity as of May 2021 consists of prosumer projects.
• Transitioning from imported coal to renewables could mitigate a potential economic loss of 2.7-3.6% of Turkey's GDP by 2030 that could be caused by an EU carbon border tax on indirect emissions.

APA

Ember (2021). An easy win for Turkey: leaving behind imported coal. https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/an-easy-win-for-turkey-leaving-behind-imported-coal

Chicago

Ember. An easy win for Turkey: leaving behind imported coal. 2021. https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/an-easy-win-for-turkey-leaving-behind-imported-coal.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Ember |title=An easy win for Turkey: leaving behind imported coal |date=28 September 2021 |url=https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/an-easy-win-for-turkey-leaving-behind-imported-coal |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ember2021easy, author = {{Ember}}, title = {{An easy win for Turkey: leaving behind imported coal}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2021}, month = sep, url = {https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/an-easy-win-for-turkey-leaving-behind-imported-coal}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }