Turkey: a new wave of solar PV deployment?

Turkey recently installed its largest PV project; the first of 600 MW of solar farms that have been tendered in the country.
But does this mean that those 600 MW of solar PV will actually be installed in Turkey?

In the coming months, Turkey is expected to reach 1 GW of installed solar PV. The majority of these PV installations come from the so-called unlicensed fragment of the market, which incorporates installations up to 1 MW. And it is a market that picked up pace in 2016, after the sector saw cumulative installations of just 70 MW and 150 MW in 2014 and 2015, respectively. 

In October, however, Turkey connected an 8 MW solar farm to the grid in the Elazig region. This is a critical development. Firstly, the project in Elazig, as well as a 5 MW PV project in the eastern region of Erzurum, was tendered in May 2014. Secondly, in December 2014, they became the first two tendered projects to be given final installation approval by the Turkish institutions.

Read the full analysis by Ilias Tsagas via pv magazine.

[Photo by Matthias Rhomberg | Flickr]