Turkey to introduce provisions for storage

Turkey’s Energy Market Regulatory Authority has published draft regulation for energy storage systems on its website. The guidelines were drawn up by the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and the General Directorate of Energy Affairs.

The new rules, which would come into force early next year if approved, are out to public consultation until October 10.

In the draft, the Turkish government outlined bureaucratic proceedings for the development and installation of storage projects without providing technical details on what kind of technology may be adopted or how storage may be integrated with projects. The draft document stated secondary legislation will be issued after the guidelines are introduced.

Rooftop and small scale PV

Eren Engur, CEO and founder of Turkish consultancy Icarus Energy, said the new rules would be particularly favorable to rooftop PV – for which new guidelines were introduced in May – and solar plants not exceeding 1 MW in size, which in Turkey do not require a license and represent most of the nation’s 5.6 GW of solar generation capacity.

“If we consider that [the] already-installed 5.6 GW consists of 1 MW projects, we can easily assume the huge potential of hybrid systems along with newly planned gigawatt scale solar-plus-storage tenders,” Engur told pv magazine. The consultant recalled the Turkish government had already shown good will towards storage when it tendered a 30 MW/90 MWh (AC) li-ion battery project in a previous 1 GW solar auction, even though the procurement exercise was scrapped in January.

Engur said he expects the Turkish solar market to add another gigawatt of capacity this year. “The new rooftop program, energy storage and e-mobility will further support the Turkish market in both utility scale and residential segments,” he added.

In May, the Turkish government decreed PV systems installed under new rules – which were awaiting approval at the time – would be exempt from the 5% income tax payable on revenue generated from the sale of excess power to the grid.

The Solar Energy Roadmap released by Turkish PV association Günder in October predicted Turkey could achieve 38 GW of solar capacity by 2030. A report published by the Shura Energy Transition Center in May 2018 predicted solar could pass 20 GW by 2026.