NECDET ALTUNTOP
Development of Solar Energy Market, Industry and Utilization in Turkey
Abstract
This study presents investigations on solar energy market, industry and utilization in Turkey. Current developments and situations in solar energy sector are discussed. Turkey is located in a convenient region in terms of solar energy. Solar energy and its application did not see enough interest by industrialists, investors and users until the Renewable Energy Law (REL). Solar energy applications, which are limited only by thermal applications, have increased significantly with REL and PV applications have begun to be used and widespread. Because the Turkish State has supported renewable energy and its applications with this law. Besides these positive developments, some negative developments have affected the progress of the sector in the negative direction. Substantial increase in foreign exchange has affected the industrialists and investors. Some important companies have finished their production operations.
This paper consists and investigates two main sections of solar energy. There are solar thermal and PV applications. The number of solar collectors, which are sold in Turkey, is investigated for solar thermal applications. Domestic and imported solar collectors are considered. Also, installed solar PV capacities are researched for solar PV applications. Also, some updated news from solar energy market and sector have been given in the paper.
Results show that there are about 18 million m2 solar collector for heating applications. According to this value, it is estimated that there are approximately 7-9 million storage units. The contribution of these systems to the national economy is about 700-800 million dollars. Solar thermal application sector is almost closed. There are almost no imported solar collectors in Turkey. After 2004, vacuum tube solar collector imports increased. Turkey has 78,788.50 MW installed electricity power. 1.1% of this installed power is derived from solar energy. The installed solar power generation plant is 898.9 MW with February 2017. This capacity has been reached with a serious increase in the last four years. There are many databases for solar PV systems. However, there is no clear information and database for solar thermal application. In order to obtain the numbers of solar thermal collector and storage unit, it is necessary to resort to indirect means such as raw material suppliers. In this study, we used the glass cover supplies’ statistics and official imported solar collector amount to get the number of solar thermal systems.
The recent developments about the solar energy sector (both PV and thermal application) have been examined by comparing to last ten years. The reader will be provided with summary and compact information related to the solar energy sector in Turkey.
Biography
Necdet Altuntop is the head of department of the mechanical engineering, Erciyes University. His main research area is the energy storage, solar energy and its thermal applications. He also served as chairman of the board at ISES Turkey. Now, he is working in Energy Efficiency Society, Turkish Society of HVAC and Sanitary Engineers (TTMD), Chamber of Mechanical Engineers (MMO) and The Turkish Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion for Reforestation and the Protection of Natural Habitats (TEMA)