Bayraktar: We Aim to Increase Our Current Installed Capacity from 30 Gigawatts to 120 Gigawatts in Wind and Solar Energy
Foreks - The 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) has begun in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Alparslan Bayraktar, who is in Baku alongside President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for COP29, spoke at the ministers' session held during the conference.
Minister Bayraktar, sharing Turkey’s energy transformation vision, stated, “We have set ambitious targets in the Renewable Energy Program. We aim to quadruple our current installed capacity from 30,000 megawatts in solar and wind energy to 120,000 megawatts by 2035, creating an investment area of 80 billion dollars.”
A New Era in Energy Transformation Minister Bayraktar emphasized that global energy security remains one of the critical issues and highlighted that we are experiencing a period where traditional assumptions in energy are being revised. He pointed out that rapid advancements in digitalization, artificial intelligence, and big data have increased electricity demand far beyond expectations, stating that Turkey is also experiencing a significant increase in energy demand along with high import dependency.
Five Strategic Areas for Turkey’s Energy Future Minister Bayraktar expressed that they have outlined a strategic path to build Turkey's energy future in line with the 2053 net zero emission targets, saying, “Our long-term strategy to overcome these challenges focuses on five main areas: increasing our renewable energy capacity, enhancing energy efficiency across our economy, expanding nuclear energy production, developing new technologies such as hydrogen, battery storage, and CCUS, and investing in critical minerals and rare earth elements necessary for our energy future.”
2035 Renewable Energy Targets Sharing the targets set for solar and wind in the Renewable Energy 2035 roadmap, Bayraktar said, “We have established significant and ambitious goals in the Renewable Energy Program. We want to quadruple our current installed capacity from 30,000 megawatts in solar and wind to 120,000 megawatts by 2035, creating an investment area of 80 billion dollars. We have recently announced a very robust grid program. We aim to add approximately 15,000 kilometers of HVDC lines to our grid, requiring about 30 billion dollars of investment in this area.”
Emphasis on Cooperation Minister Bayraktar also highlighted the importance of energy efficiency, stating that they aim to reduce energy consumption by 16% by 2030, saying, “With this, we aim to contribute to a reduction of 100 million tons of emissions. At the same time, we need to bring investment and financing into this area. We are open to collaborations with international financial institutions to achieve this goal.”