Turkey has surpassed its 2025 goal for solar power a year early, and that’s only the beginning.

In less than a decade, Turkey has gone from almost no solar power in 2015 to almost 20,000 megawatts. That capacity doubled in just four years between 2018 and 2022 and then doubled again in two and a half years. Turkey is making huge strides toward its goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2053, as outlined in its long-term climate strategy. 

It’s not just solar. Turkey is also investing significant sums in raising its geothermal, hydroelectric, and wind energy capacity. Most of the progress in geothermal energy, which now stands around 1,700 MW, is concentrated in the western provinces. An article in the journal Geothermics described the country as a “geothermal success story.” Turkey has also recently built 34 hydroelectric power plants.

However, the momentum behind wind energy has slowed recently. The 2022 national energy plan targeted 29.6 gigawatts by 2035, but around 770 MW were added last year, per Turkish Minute, suggesting that there’s a ways to go. Still, the progress with solar shows that it can be done.

Turkey’s remarkable energy transformation is likely underpinned by strategic and economic pragmatism. According to a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the country’s main natural gas trading partners are Russia (39%) and Iran (17%), so moving toward greater energy sufficiency is a wise move in the long term. 

Moreover, the more energy Turkey produces on its own, the more money it saves for further internal investment. AzerNews reported that every large facility of 1 GW or more saves 2.3 billion cubic meters of gas from being imported, about $800 million to $1 billion saved. Ember Energy estimated that Turkey’s renewable push has saved the country around $15 billion. 

Bahadır Sercan Gümüş, an energy analyst for Ember, called for even more ambitious targets in a report: “Raising renewable energy targets and maintaining the momentum offers Türkiye the opportunity to reduce its dependence on energy imports, strengthen energy security, and assert its commitment more prominently on the international stage.” 

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