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Sustainability in The Era of Türkiye

hydroelectric power plants in the past, and consequently, the total share of
renewable resources in the installed power was increased to 54% according
to the data of December 2022 of Turkish Electricity Transmission Corporation
(TEİAŞ) (Reports on Plant Installed Power, 2023). With these figures, Türkiye
has risen to the twelfth place in the world and the first five in Europe in terms
of installed capacity renewable energy in electrical energy production.
Undoubtedly, the driving factor in the transformation has been to decrease
dependence on fossil fuels, and emissions causing air pollution and climate
change, and to focus on domestic and renewable sources by reducing
dependence on foreign sources in production. At this point, Law No. 5346
(Law on Utilization of Renewable Energy Resources for the Purpose of
Generating Electrical Energy, 2005), which was enacted in 2005, called the
Renewable Energy Resources Law in short, has become the cornerstone of
the transformation in energy. In other words, the green transformation in
energy commenced in 2005.
Investments have been promoted by the government via the regulations
such as the Renewable Energy Resources Support Scheme (YEKDEM)
developed after 2011 and the Renewable Energy Resource Areas (YEKA)
Model (Regulation on Renewable Energy Resource Areas, 2016) that was
put into effect after 2016. Also, by offering additional incentives to domestic
components and equipment, the domestic production of equipment has
been ensured and hence there has been an exponential increase in renewable
energy investments throughout the years.
In the last 20 years, Wind Power (WPP) Production Capacity has increased
from 19 MW to 11,200 MW; Solar Power (SPP) Production Capacity from zero
to 9 thousand MW; Geothermal Power (GPP) Production Capacity from 17
MW to 1,680 MW; Biomass Power (BPP) Production Capacity from 27 MW to
2 thousand 170 MW, and Hydraulic Power (HPP) Production Capacity from 12
thousand MW to 32 thousand MW. Consequently, it has been ensured that
the installed capacity of renewable energy has risen from 12 thousand MW
to 56 thousand MW with an increase of more than 3.5 times in the last twenty
years alone. That is to say that the renewable energy investments realized in
this period corresponded to around 1.5 times the total electricity installed
power of Türkiye in 2002 (Turkish Electricity Transmission Corporation, 2023).
The fact that 33 thousand MW, which accounts for 60% of 55 thousand
MW installed power of renewable energy of Türkiye, is within the scope of
YEKDEM, according to the data obtained from Energy Exchange Istanbul
(EXIST), is a significant fact that shows the effectiveness of this policy (Reports
on Plant Installed Power, 2022). On the other side, with a view to benefiting
from the potential of Türkiye surrounded by seas on three sides, and to

Year 2 / Issue 3 / January 2023 9