Investments in the transition to clean energy are increasing day by day. The positive effects of transition initiatives from coal plants to gas-fired power plants have been seen in the last 10 years. In the US alone, this transition has played a major role in the 33% decrease in emissions since 2007. Thanks to these positive results, it is anticipated that more investment will be made in decarbonization technologies, including carbon capture, use and storage, and hydrogen to convert natural gas into a low-carbon energy source in the coming years. Interest in investments in accessible solar energy and research in this area is also increasing.
So, what kind of path will be followed in sustainability studies for climate change, which is one of the most urgent priorities of today?
Modernized networks
To meet the growing energy demand and cope with harsh weather conditions, grids need to become more modern and resilient, and grid reliability must be maintained when it comes to variable and renewable resources. It is very important for the networks to provide flexible service for efficiency and reliability. For this reason, investments in network, hardware, control systems, and software development supported by artificial intelligence and data analytics are expected to gain more importance and increase their share in the coming years.
Solar Energy Panels
According to the 2022 solar energy projections of the World Clean Energy Organization, this year will be the first to install more than 200 GW of solar power. Sharing its predictions for the solar energy sector for 2022, the World Clean Energy Organization stated that the solar energy capacity is 183 GW (171-199 GW range) for 2021 in the medium scenario, while it is 228 GW (204-252 GW range) for 2022. It was stated that this is a more significant increase than the expectation in November 2020, where the highest scenario is 206 GW.
While Turkey’s solar energy capacity exceeding 8 thousand MW consists of power plants in 78 provinces, Konya has the highest of this capacity.
According to the news of Nuran Erkul Kaya from Anadolu Agency, Turkey’s installed electricity capacity reached 100 thousand 334 MW as of the end of March, and the solar energy installed power reached 8 thousand 29 MW.
The installed power of solar energy, which was 40 MW in 2014, has exceeded 8 thousand MW in approximately 8 years, and the share of solar energy in Turkey’s electricity installed power has reached 8 percent.
While the installed power of solar energy, mainly composed of unlicensed power plants, stands out with its “distributed” structure, there are solar power plants of various sizes in 78 provinces of Turkey.
Konya is the province with the highest installed power in solar energy with 1167.50 MW. This is followed by Ankara with a capacity of 415.8 MW, Şanlıurfa with 383.5 MW, Kayseri with 346.5 MW and İzmir with 306.9 MW.
Kahramanmaraş with 264.7 MW, Gaziantep 260.8 MW, Afyonkarahisar with 252.3 MW, Antalya with 241.7 MW and Manisa with 234.8 MW is among the top 10 cities with the highest installed capacity in solar energy.
While Mersin follows these provinces with an installed power of 217.5 MW, there is a solar energy capacity of 100-200 MW in 20 provinces of Turkey and 50-100 MW in 9 provinces.
In solar energy, the capacities in 18 cities vary between 10-50 MW, while 20 cities have a solar installed capacity of 10 MW or less.
Rize, Hakkari and Artvin stand out as the three provinces in Turkey where there is no solar energy capacity.
