Türkiye Electricity Review 2025
Wind and solar power in Türkiye permanently overtook electricity from domestic coal in 2024, even surpassing domestic coal power’s historic peak.
Available in: Türkçe
10 Apr 2025
50 Minutes Read
Table of Contents
Executive summary
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Renewables
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Solar electricity generation increased by 39% year-on-year
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Solar growth meets one-third of rise in power demand
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Hybrid solar plant capacity exceeds 1 GW
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Growth in electricity generation from wind has slowed
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Minimal rise in wind power
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Increase in hydroelectricity despite dry year
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Decline in run-of-river hydroelectricity generation
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Third highest year for annual hydroelectricity generation
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Wind and solar can complement hydro in drought years
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Fossil
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Coal-fired electricity generation increases, but nears peak
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Share of fossil at historic low level
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Record decline in fossil share driven by gas
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Türkiye still relies on imports both in coal and gas
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Wind and solar outperform domestic coal power’s peak
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Demand
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Increase in demand due to record temperatures
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Industry is not the source of increased electricity demand
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Growth in electricity demand has slowed since 2017
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Targets
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Wind and solar to quadruple by 2035
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Targeting growth in storage and exports
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Recommendations
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Address limited connection capacity
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Install hybrid power plants
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Ensure auctions are effective
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Free up unused connection capacity
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Introduce new types of auctions
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Increase interconnector capacity with neighbouring countries
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Supporting materials
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Highlights
+39%
Solar power rises by 39% year-on-year in Türkiye
18%
Wind and solar generate 18% of electricity in Türkiye in 2024
61%
Imported coal makes up 61% of Türkiye’s coal-fired electricity generation in 2024
Executive summary
Wind and solar permanently overtake domestic coal power
In recent years, wind and solar were the driving force of electricity generation from domestic sources in Türkiye. In 2024, wind and solar surpassed the peak annual electricity generation of domestic coal for the first time, permanently overtaking domestic coal.
“Wind and solar overtaking electricity from domestic coal is a huge moment for Türkiye. However, wind and solar are still not growing fast enough to meet rising electricity demand. The remaining demand growth will be met by costly imported fossil fuel power generation. Under ambitious targets in place for 2035, wind and solar could grow to provide half of Türkiye’s power. The focus should now be on removing barriers to growth to scale up those domestic renewable sources as soon as possible.”
Key takeaways
01
Wind and solar share reaches 18% as solar grows by record amount
In 2024, solar power in Türkiye increased by a record 39% year-on-year. This pushed solar’s share of electricity to 7.5%, up from 5.7% in 2023. Wind remained steady at 10.7%, close to the previous year’s level of 10.6%. As a result, the total share of wind and solar in electricity generation surpassed 18%.
02
Fossil share in generation falls to 31-year low despite a rise in coal
Despite an increase in electricity generation from coal (+4 TWh) in 2024, coal’s share in Türkiye’s electricity mix slightly declined from 36.9% to 35.6%. With coal-fired power generation continuing to decline across Europe, Türkiye overtook Germany to become the country with the most coal power generation in Europe. Meanwhile, gas power fell by 3 TWh (-4%). This brought the share of fossil fuels in power generation down to 55% — the lowest level since 1993.
03
Wind and solar surpass domestic coal power’s historic peak
Annual electricity generation from wind and solar in 2024 was 62 TWh, above domestic coal (47 TWh) for the second year in a row. This even exceeded the historic peak of domestic coal generation (53 TWh in 2019) for the first time. Despite ongoing coal power plant projects in Türkiye, domestic coal power generation is unlikely to surpass wind and solar in the future.
04
Demand growth continues to outpace renewables deployment
Although demand growth has slowed in recent years, it is still outpacing the rate of new wind and solar additions. Demand increased by 42 TWh in the last five years, compared to 31 TWh of additional wind and solar. The rest of demand is met by imported coal and gas. As the government expects an increase in electricity demand growth by 2030, the success of targets will depend on wind and solar being deployed quickly enough to both meet increases in electricity demand and displace fossil fuels.
05
New 2035 targets can reduce fossil share to below one-fifth
Türkiye’s newly announced 2035 installed capacity targets, unveiled during COP29, aim to quadruple the country’s current wind and solar capacity. If achieved, by 2035 the share of fossil power generation could drop to below 20% and wind and solar rise to 49%.
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