Türkiye installed around 2.8 GW of solar in first five months of 2025

A strong start to solar installations in 2025 helped the country's cumulative solar capacity surpass 22.6 GW by the end of May.

Türkiye’s cumulative solar capacity reached 22,648 MW at the end of May, according to figures released by the government’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.

The figure represents continued momentum in the country’s solar growth. At the end of last year, solar capacity stood at 19.8 GW, meaning over 2.8 GW were deployed across the first five months of this year.

The growth of the past months was mainly driven by commercial and industrial installations. “In our view, it’s the latest dynamics with regulated retail rates, that have seen substantial increases in the last year, that are driving these upticks in installations, particularly in the C&I segment,” Wood Mackenzie analyst, Juan Monge Artacho, told pv magazine.

The ministry’s latest update adds that solar capacity at the end of May 2024 was 14,995 MW, meaning over 7.6 GW of solar were added across the twelve calendar months.

Türkiye’s total renewables capacity at the end of last month stood at 72,492 MW, with solar accounting for over 31% of that capacity. Hydropower continues to be Türkiye’s largest source of renewables, accounting for almost half of the 72 GW total, as of the end of last month. 

Together, solar, hydropower, wind, geothermal energy and biomass accounted for 60.8% of the country’s total installed power at the end of May.

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Alparslan Bayraktar, commented that Türkiye can now meet the annual electricity needs of all households with electricity produced only from solar and wind power plants.

Albayrak added that investment totaling around $80 billion will be required to meet the country’s target of 120 GW of solar and wind by 2035.

The minister also confirmed that auctions of at least 2 GW of solar and wind are planned annually. The next solar tender is scheduled for October, with wind following a month later.

Turkey’s last solar tender allocated 800 MW across six projects with a final price set at $0.0325/kWh.