Turkey added 5,840 megawatts of new electricity production capacity in 2017 with investments totaling $6.2 billion, Energy and Natural Resources Ministry data showed on Thursday.
With this newly added electricity generation capacity, Turkey's total installed power capacity reached 85,200 megawatts at the end of 2017.
Last year, the capacity of new natural gas power plants stood at 2,621 megawatts, which corresponded to an investment volume of $2.2 billion.
Natural gas plants provided the biggest additional capacity in 2017.
Imported coal to generate electricity in Turkey's coal-power plants totaled 1,320 megawatts of installed capacity with investments of $1.56 billion.
- Wind triumphs among renewables resources
Turkey, with the aim of boosting electricity production capacity from domestic and renewable resources, added 746.3 megawatts of wind capacity in 2017. This capacity equaled $900 million in investments with wind taking the highest new capacity share among other renewable resources.
Hydroelectricity power plants followed and generated 736.9 megawatts of new capacity with investments of $1.15 billion in 2017.
In addition to wind and hydro, Turkey added 337.9 megawatts of power production capacity from geothermal, biogas, solar (licensed) and waste worth $332 million.
In total, new capacity from renewable energy resources stood at 1,821 megawatts in 2017.
Furthermore, 78.1 megawatts of additional capacity was provided from local coal, lignite, fuel oil and cogeneration, which created an investment volume of around $80 million.
However, the total additional capacity in 2017 decreased by 1.3 percent compared to 2016.
At the end of 2017, Turkey had put over 3,000 megawatts of unlicensed solar capacity into operation.
Turkey's licensed solar power is set to grow with the country's Renewable Energy Resources Zone (YEKA) project in Konya - Karapinar, which will enable the country to have 1,000 megawatts of capacity by 2020.
Turkey plans to realize its second YEKA tender in the summer of 2018.
By Nuran Erkul Kaya
Anadolu Agency
nuran.erkul@aa.com.tr