Turkey Quadruples Renewable Power to 72.5 GW in Two Decades

• Turkey’s renewable capacity has soared 4.5 times to 72.5 GW, with wind and solar alone now covering every household’s annual electricity demand.

Twenty years ago Turkey’s wind turbines were curiosities and its solar panels rarer still. Today they are pillars of the national grid. Figures released by the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry show that, as of the end of May 2025, the country’s renewable fleet has swollen to 72.5 gigawatts (GW)—a 4½-fold jump since 2005.

Hydropower still shoulders the biggest share at 32.3 GW, but the real story is in the newer technologies. Solar arrays now provide 22.6 GW, and wind farms another 13.4 GW, together accounting for 30 percent of all installed capacity. Add in biomass (2.4 GW) and geothermal plants (1.7 GW), and renewables supply 61 percent of Turkey’s 119 GW power system, up from 58 percent last year.

Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar likes to frame the progress in everyday terms: “The electricity we get from wind and solar alone can meet the annual needs of every household in the country,” he said at a recent briefing.

That momentum is far from spent. Ankara is targeting 120 GW of wind and solar by 2035, a build-out the ministry reckons will demand around USD 80 billion in fresh investment. A key instrument is the YEKA auction scheme, which will put at least 2 GW of new capacity on the block each year. Solar developers will bid in October; wind projects take their turn in November.

For Turkey, the pay-off is triple-pronged: lower import bills for gas and coal, cleaner air at home, and a stronger hand in the global green-tech race. As Bayraktar put it, “Every new megawatt we add deepens our energy independence and brings us closer to our climate goals.”