Türkiye surpasses 2025 solar target as capacity doubles in 2.5 years

Türkiye's solar capacity doubled between July 2022 and the end of 2024, reaching 19.6 GW and surpassing its 2025 target of 18 GW ahead of schedule. This growth was largely driven by unlicensed plants for self-consumption. Combined solar and wind generation avoided $15 billion in natural gas imports over two years. While solar is accelerating, wind energy growth has slowed, with 2024 capacity reaching 12.5 GW, missing its 13.3 GW target. The report highlights a significant pipeline of 33 GW in pre-licensed storage-integrated projects, far exceeding official targets, and suggests that Türkiye should update its NDC and National Energy Plan to reflect these trends and the revised 2035 targets.

• Türkiye's solar energy capacity grew from 9.7 GW in July 2022 to 19.6 GW by the end of 2024, exceeding the 18 GW target set for 2025 in the National Energy Plan (NEP) approximately 1.5 years early.
• The rapid expansion of solar capacity was primarily driven by unlicensed plants intended for self-consumption, which accounted for 90% of new installations over the last four years.
• Combined electricity generation from solar and wind energy prevented $15 billion in natural gas imports over the past two years; solar energy alone contributed to avoiding $5.4 billion of these imports.
• Wind energy growth has slowed, with 2024 capacity reaching 12.5 GW, which is below the 13.3 GW target set in the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MENR) Strategic Plan.
• There is a substantial pipeline of approximately 33 GW of pre-licensed storage-integrated wind and solar projects, which significantly exceeds the official 2030 target of 2.1 GW and the 2035 target of 7.5 GW.
• Türkiye's 2035 solar capacity target was revised upward to 77 GW in the Long-Term Climate Change Strategy (LTS), a 45% increase over the 53 GW target previously set in the NEP.
• The report argues that Türkiye's current Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for 2030 is insufficient as it lacks absolute emission reductions and does not align with the rapid growth of renewables or the projected 3.5% annual increase in electricity demand by 2035.

APA

Gümüş, B. S. (2025). Türkiye surpasses 2025 solar target as capacity doubles in 2.5 years. Ember. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2025/01/EN-Report_-Turkiye-surpasses-2025-solar-target-as-capacity-doubled.pdf

Chicago

Gümüş, Bahadır Sercan. Türkiye surpasses 2025 solar target as capacity doubles in 2.5 years. Ember, 2025. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2025/01/EN-Report_-Turkiye-surpasses-2025-solar-target-as-capacity-doubled.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gümüş |first1=Bahadır Sercan |title=Türkiye surpasses 2025 solar target as capacity doubles in 2.5 years |publisher=Ember |date=28 January 2025 |url=https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2025/01/EN-Report_-Turkiye-surpasses-2025-solar-target-as-capacity-doubled.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gm2025trkiye, author = {Gümüş, Bahadır Sercan}, title = {{Türkiye surpasses 2025 solar target as capacity doubles in 2.5 years}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2025/01/EN-Report_-Turkiye-surpasses-2025-solar-target-as-capacity-doubled.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }