Turkish energy minister flags major offshore wind plans
Nation planning 'world's largest project' as part of measures to keep up momentum in renewables, says Albayrak
Turkey is planning a major entry into the offshore wind sector with a project that would be “the world’s largest”, the country’s energy minister said.
The offshore wind project forms part of a renewables push that aims to spur the build of 10GW of wind and solar plants over the next 10 years, minister Berat Albayrak told an energy conference in Istanbul.
Turkey is preparing new 1GW tenders in each source, and will include provision for storage capacity, added Albayrak.
Turkey ended 2017 with 6.86GW of wind power installed after adding 766MW last year, according to latest data from the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).
The nation has rapidly emerged as a renewables hostpot, and is keen to maintain the momentum despite the political instability that followed 2015’s failed coup.
Development potential of the country's offshore acreage has been “largely underestimated or ignored” so far due to transmission complexities, water depths and limited wind data, said the report's authors.
But advances in floating turbine technology and recent investment in onshore transmission infrastructure are expected to open the door to "more wind potential than previously anticipated".
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