Turkey has remarkable wind energy potential, but its utilisation rate is very low. However, in 2007, energy investors applied to the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) with 751 wind projects to obtain a 78180.2 MW wind power plant license. This paper first presents an overview of wind energy development in the world and then reviews related situations in Turkey. Second, to motivate the interest in wind energy investment, new wind power plant license applications in Turkey are analysed. Finally, wind electricity generation cost analyses were performed at 14 locations in Turkey. Capacity factors of investigated locations were calculated between 19.7% and 56.8%, and the production cost of electrical energy was between 1.73 and 4.99 $cent/kW h for two different wind shear coefficients.
Wind power is becoming the fastest growing renewable energy source in the world. The strong growth in wind power capacity is attributable to the promotion of models of renewable energy sources, energy supply security, fuel diversity concerns, ecological awareness and economic reasons. By the end of 2008, global installed wind power capacity reached 121,188 MW and an annual output of approximately 260 TW h. At present, wind generated electricity contributes more than 1.5% to global electricity consumption [1], and five countries meet more than 6% of their electricity demand with wind energy [2] and [3].
Wind electricity has a significant impact on decreases in the electricity market price, especially during peak periods [4]. Thus, in some countries and regions, installed wind capacity grew more than other power plant types, including hydropower, nuclear and coal plants [5]. Over the last decade, interest in wind power has increased dramatically in many countries. The installed wind power capacity development of the top 10 countries is shown in Table 1[2], [6], [7] and [8]. The speed of wind power development across countries can be explained by various reasons, such as different wind characteristics, promotion policies, economic factors, technical reasons and energy security problems.
Table 1.
Top 10 installed wind power capacities (MW).
Country 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
1 USA 2554 4275 4685 6374 6740 9149.0 11603.0 16818.8 25,170
2 Germany 6113 8754 12,001 14,609 16628.8 18427.5 20622.0 22247.4 23,903
3 Spain 2235 3337 4830 6202 8263 10027.9 11630.0 15145.1 16,754
4 China 340 401 468 566 764 1266.0 2599.0 5912.0 12,210
5 India 1167 1407 1702 2110 2985 4430.0 6270.0 7850.0 9645
6 Italy 427 682 788 904 1265 1718.3 2123.4 2726.1 3736
7 France 79 85 147 198 390 757.2 1567.0 2455.0 3404
8 UK 408 464 552 647.6 900.8 1353.0 1962.9 2389.0 3241
9 Denmark 2300 2417 2880 3110 3117 3128.0 3136.0 3125.0 3180
10 Portugal 100 127 193.8 288.6 562 1022.0 1716.0 2130.0 2862
Table options
Several papers were published, in the last three decades in Turkey and abroad, to determine wind characteristics, and electricity generation cost [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34] and [35]. The goal of this paper is to investigate the wind energy development, wind power plant license applications and wind electricity generation cost for 14 locations in Turkey. This paper first presents an overview of wind energy development and the situation in Turkey. Second, new wind power plant license applications of Turkey are analysed to comprehend the interest in wind energy investment. Then, a brief review of wind energy resource assessment studies in Turkey is presented. The last section is devoted to wind electricity generation cost analysis for 14 locations in Turkey using the determined Weibull distribution parameters in the literature.
As in other developing countries, electrical energy demand in Turkey is increasing rapidly. Imported energy sources meet 60% of Turkey’s electricity production requirements, but Turkey has remarkable wind energy potential. Presently, the installed wind power capacity is 727.45 MW, and there are 751 projects (78180.2 MW) under investigation and evaluation. As these numbers indicate, the contribution of wind energy to the energy mix in Turkey is going to increase in the near future. Wind energy may play a strategic role in achieving the goals of sustainable development, supplying electrical energy at a reasonable cost and reducing dependency on fossil fuels. It is necessary for Turkey to rebalance its energy mix considering wind energy for energy security and environmental reasons. Turkey has an opportunity for Turkish wind turbine manufacturing industry investors to create domestic wind turbines not only to meet Turkey’s needs but also to participate in this dynamic market. Licensing 10% of the new applications will create approximately 8 billion Euros in the wind market.
The mean capacity factor of installed power plants in Turkey ranged from 30% to 45% between 1998 and 2008. The mean capacity factor of wind license applications was 41.9%. However, the mean realised capacity factor for European countries was below 21% between 2003 and 2007. In other words, Turkey has unutilised considerable wind energy potential. The findings of this study indicate that the capacities in the investigated locations were between 19.7% and 56.8%, and the production cost of electrical energy varied between 1.73 and 4.99 $cent/kW h for two different wind shears. According to the Turkish law on energy efficiency, 5–5.5 Euro cent/kW h is paid for renewable electrical energy. These results indicate that it is possible to generate cost effective wind electricity in these locations.
