Türkiye Electricity Review 2023

In 2022, Türkiye's coal generation returned to its previous peak of 113.6 TWh, driven largely by imported coal, with Russia becoming the primary supplier and the import bill reaching a record $5.3 billion. While wind and solar combined for a 15.5% share of generation, solar deployment lags behind its potential and faces grid capacity barriers. Hydropower proved critical for energy security during a ten-day gas supply disruption from Iran in January 2022, demonstrating its flexibility as a complement to variable renewables.

• Türkiye's coal power generation rose by 10% year-on-year in 2022 to 113.6 TWh, surpassing the previous peak of 113.2 TWh from 2018. This recovery was fueled by imported coal, which accounted for 20% of total power generation in 2022, compared to 7% in 2010.
• The cost of coal imports for power reached an all-time high of $5.3 billion USD in 2022. Russia replaced Colombia as the top thermal coal supplier, providing 44% of total coal imports in 2022, with imports from Russia doubling to 11.3 million tonnes from 5.2 million in 2021.
• During a ten-day gas supply cutoff from Iran in January 2022, hydropower plants compensated for the loss of gas-fired generation. In the first four days of the crisis, daily hydropower generation increased by 110 GWh while daily gas generation decreased by 130 GWh.
• Wind and solar power reached a combined 15.5% share of total generation in 2022. Wind power's 11% share exceeds that of G20 nations such as France (8.2%) and Italy (7.1%), while solar's 4.7% share is comparable to countries with lower solar potential, such as Poland (4.5%) and Ukraine (3.8% in 2021).
• Türkiye's long-term energy plan targets a solar capacity of nearly 53 GW by 2035, up from 9.4 GW in 2022. However, achieving this requires annual installations of 2.8 GW to 4 GW, significantly higher than the average of 1.2 GW added annually over the last five years.
• Solar deployment is hindered by grid capacity limitations. While new legislation allows wind and solar projects paired with storage to obtain licenses more easily, applications exceeded 165 GW in two months for a total allocated capacity of only 30 GW.
• The 2022 energy plan includes a projected increase in coal power capacity by 2.5 GW by 2035 and an additional 10 GW of gas power capacity by 2035.

APA

Ember (2023). Türkiye Electricity Review 2023. https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/turkiye-electricity-review-2023

Chicago

Ember. Türkiye Electricity Review 2023. 2023. https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/turkiye-electricity-review-2023.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Ember |title=Türkiye Electricity Review 2023 |date=13 March 2023 |url=https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/turkiye-electricity-review-2023 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ember2023trkiye, author = {{Ember}}, title = {{Türkiye Electricity Review 2023}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2023}, month = mar, url = {https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/turkiye-electricity-review-2023}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }