Local and renewable energy resources accounted for 90% of Turkey’s electricity generation on May 24, a new all-time daily high, the country’s energy and natural resources minister said Tuesday.
Sunday marked the beginning of the three-day Ramadan Bayram holiday, better known as Eid al-Fitr. Turkey had imposed a four-day curfew over the holiday from May 23 to 26 to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
“On May 24, we achieved a new record in daily production by generating 90% of our electricity from domestic and renewable resources,” Fatih Dönmez said on his Twitter account, while he didn’t specify the amount of the electricity generated in the day.
“Our National Energy continues to renew and our investments bear fruit,” Dönmez said.
Hydro plants constituted the largest percentage of 43.7%, while local coal plants contributed 16.5% to electricity generation, according to the minister.
Wind plants powered 14.5% and solar plants constituted 7.2%. Geothermal and biomass plants added 5.3% and 2.6%.
According to official figures of Turkish Electricity Transmission Corporation (TEIAŞ), total electricity production reached 457,921 megawatt-hours on Sunday.
The majority of the output came from hydroelectricity plants at 119,335 megawatt-hours. Run-of-river plants and hard coal followed with 96,201 megawatt-hours and 73,170 megawatt-hours, respectively, the data showed.
Dönmez last week said around 70% of Turkey’s additional capacity in the last five years had come from domestic, renewable energy sources.
In just over a decade, Turkey has tripled its installed renewable capacity to around 45,000 megawatts and invested nearly $40 billion in renewable energy projects. Turkey ranks sixth in Europe and 13th in the world in terms of renewable capacity.
According to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), Turkey’s renewable energy capacity of 42 gigawatts (GW) is predicted to reach 63 GW by 2024, placing Turkey among Europe’s top five and 11th worldwide in terms of renewable capacity.
