Türkiye can bypass grid constraints with hybrid solar power plants

Türkiye is facing significant grid connection bottlenecks, with 65% of unlicensed solar project applications rejected between February 2024 and April 2025. Hybrid solar plants, which share existing transmission lines with wind or hydroelectric facilities, offer a way to bypass these constraints without new grid investments. The report estimates a baseline hybrid solar potential of 8 GW, which could increase to 25.6 GW under more favorable economic conditions. Implementing these systems could raise total solar capacity to 30 GW and mitigate the impact of climate-induced droughts on hydroelectric generation.

• Grid connection constraints are severely limiting renewable energy growth in Türkiye; between February 2024 and April 2025, 65% of unlicensed solar project applications at the transmission level were rejected. As of May 2025, only 0.52 GW of capacity remained available for distribution-level connections, and no new transmission-level capacity has been announced since September 2024.
• Hybrid solar power plants can increase the efficiency of existing grid connections. In 2024, 25 analyzed wind and hydroelectric plants with hybrid solar saw an average increase in electricity delivered to the grid by 14%, with the average connection capacity factor rising by 5 percentage points to 32%.
• The estimated hybrid solar potential at privately owned wind and hydroelectric plants in Türkiye is 8 GW under current market conditions. If realized, this would increase total installed solar capacity to 30 GW, making solar the country's largest energy source by installed capacity. Under more optimistic economic scenarios (e.g., 4% interest rates), this potential could rise to 25.6 GW.
• Dammed hydroelectric power plants represent the highest potential for hybrid solar, accounting for 46% (3.6 GW) of the 8 GW baseline potential. This is attributed to the high solar potential in the Mediterranean and Eastern Anatolia regions where many dammed plants are located.
• Hybrid solar and floating solar systems are identified as critical tools to mitigate the risk of drought-induced generation losses in hydroelectric plants. Türkiye's dam-type hydroelectric plants have a floating solar potential of 53 GW.
• The report recommends three primary regulatory changes to unlock hybrid solar potential: treating hybrid plants as a separate process from new capacity allocations, removing the 100 MW capacity cap, and eliminating the requirement that hybrid projects be physically integrated within the primary source's site.

APA

Çeliköz, Ç. (2025). Türkiye can bypass grid constraints with hybrid solar power plants. Ember. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2025/06/EN-Turkiye-can-bypass-grid-constraints-with-hybrid-solar-power-plants-1.pdf

Chicago

Çeliköz, Çağlar. Türkiye can bypass grid constraints with hybrid solar power plants. Ember, 2025. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2025/06/EN-Turkiye-can-bypass-grid-constraints-with-hybrid-solar-power-plants-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Çeliköz |first1=Çağlar |title=Türkiye can bypass grid constraints with hybrid solar power plants |publisher=Ember |date=18 June 2025 |url=https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2025/06/EN-Turkiye-can-bypass-grid-constraints-with-hybrid-solar-power-plants-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{elikz2025trkiye, author = {Çeliköz, Çağlar}, title = {{Türkiye can bypass grid constraints with hybrid solar power plants}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2025}, month = jun, url = {https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2025/06/EN-Turkiye-can-bypass-grid-constraints-with-hybrid-solar-power-plants-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }