Turkey Electricity Review 2022
Ember analysis finds that coal generation fell for third consecutive year, but Turkey’s electricity is still dirty.
20 Jan 2022
4 Minutes Read
Executive summary
Coal generation fell for third consecutive year, but Turkey’s electricity is still dirty
Unlike many European countries, Turkey’s coal power generation dropped again in 2021, for the third year in a row. On the other hand, gas generation increased to compensate for the drought-induced decline in hydropower generation. Hence Turkey’s emissions per kWh power generation remain unchanged. In fact there has been no significant improvement in Turkey’s carbon intensity of power in at least 30 years.
Key takeaways
01
Non-hydro renewable generation doubled since 2017.
Non-hydro renewable generation doubled since 2017 (wind, solar, geothermal & bioenergy), and overtook hydropower for the first time. Drought also played a role in the shift between hydro and non-hydro renewables.
02
Decline in hydropower has been compensated by gas power in Turkey.
While hydro share decreased from 26% to 17%, gas increased from 23% to 33% year over year in 2021 and pushed the share of fossil fuels to 65% in 2021.
03
Wind and solar generation set a new record.
Wind and solar generation reached 44.6 TWh, a 25% rise in a year. In 2021 wind & solar reached 13.6% share in total power generation, up from 11.7% in 2020.
04
Coal generation fell in 2021, for the third year in a row.
Coal generation fell in 2021, as a result of extremely high costs of importing hard coal. Turkey’s coal generation has declined by 8% from 2018 to 2021. Coal generation fell even in comparison to 2020, when five lignite plants were shut down for six months due to their non-compliance with new air pollution limits. But it is still at the highest level of the pre-2018 period.
05
Total renewable generation doubled in the last ten years.
However, the rise in renewables (+58 TWh) since 2011 was far from meeting the power demand increase in the same period (+95 TWh). The gap was filled by mostly imported coal (+32 TWh).
06
No significant improvement in carbon intensity
Turkey’s carbon intensity of power was better than many European countries in 2004. However, while Turkey saw a 3% increase in carbon intensity from 2004 to 2021, these European countries have seen significant reductions and outranked Turkey: Denmark (-60%), Greece (-50%), UK (-50%), Romania (-45%), Italy (-45%), Netherlands (-32%), Germany (-28%) and Bulgaria (-13%).
The increase in wind and solar power has been promising but not enough to meet the rise in power demand. The gap was filled by imported coal, raised import bills. However, wind and solar energy are now cheaper than coal generation relying on imports. 2018 may be the year when coal peaked in Turkey, but it would require determination not to build new coal and say goodbye to the dirtiest power generation source.
Acknowledgements
Image credit: ilkay dede / Alamy Stock Photo
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