Grid connection capacity challenges in Türkiye and worldwide

The report highlights a critical shortage of grid connection capacity in Türkiye, where 65% of unlicensed project applications (7.5 GW) were rejected between February 2024 and April 2025 due to regional constraints. Globally, 1.65 TW of wind, solar, and hydroelectric capacity is awaiting connection approval as of July 2024. The document identifies high investment costs, inflation, exchange rate fluctuations, and cautious technical planning assumptions as primary drivers of these bottlenecks. It also notes procedural delays in Europe, where wind farm connection permits can take up to 9 years, and suggests that improving data transparency and tightening application criteria—as seen in France, Greece, and Romania—could accelerate the energy transition.

• In Türkiye, grid connection capacity at the transmission level has been exhausted since September 2024, leading to the rejection of all new applications. Between February 2024 and April 2025, 65% of unlicensed project applications, totaling 7.5 GW out of 11.6 GW, were rejected because of regional capacity limits.
• Global grid connection queues for wind, solar, and hydroelectric projects reached 1.65 TW by July 2024, a 10% increase from 2023, representing 38% of the total installed capacity for these sources. In Europe, 0.5 TW of wind capacity is awaiting approval across 10 countries, including France, Spain, and Germany.
• Economic risks, specifically high inflation and exchange rate fluctuations, are identified by TEİAŞ as the second most significant factor impacting its operations after technological factors. To address infrastructure needs, TEİAŞ planned to allocate 74% of its 362 billion TL budget for 2024–2028 to grid renewal and development.
• Grid infrastructure development is slowed by high costs, procurement issues, and labor shortages, with high-voltage project construction taking 5 to 13 years. Additionally, system operators often underestimate capacity by assuming variable resources like wind and solar will produce at maximum capacity for extended periods.
• Procedural inefficiencies, such as the 'first come, first evaluated' principle in Europe, allow speculative projects to delay the process. To counter this, countries like France, Greece, and Romania have tightened application criteria, while the UK, Romania, Greece, Spain, and Italy use application fees or bank guarantees to deter low-probability projects.

APA

Ember (2025). Grid connection capacity challenges in Türkiye and worldwide. https://ember-energy.org/chapter/grid-connection-capacity-challenges-in-turkiye-and-worldwide/

Chicago

Ember. Grid connection capacity challenges in Türkiye and worldwide. 2025. https://ember-energy.org/chapter/grid-connection-capacity-challenges-in-turkiye-and-worldwide/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Ember |title=Grid connection capacity challenges in Türkiye and worldwide |date=18 June 2025 |url=https://ember-energy.org/chapter/grid-connection-capacity-challenges-in-turkiye-and-worldwide/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ember2025grid, author = {{Ember}}, title = {{Grid connection capacity challenges in Türkiye and worldwide}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2025}, month = jun, url = {https://ember-energy.org/chapter/grid-connection-capacity-challenges-in-turkiye-and-worldwide/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }