Levent Bilir

Role of Wind Power in the Energy Policy of Turkey

Abstract Energy used to be produced mostly from fossil fuels until the near past, and the use of these fuels has created many environmental problems. For this reason, renewable energy resources have become important for energy production. As a result of technological developments in the field, electricity production using wind turbines with high capacities is possible in the current era. An increasing tendency to use renewable energy resources in the world has revealed a need to study the current position of wind energy in Turkey also and particularly the policies to increase the usage of wind energy. First, the current position of energy production and energy policy in Turkey is summarized and the details about installed wind power plants are presented. Second, the future projections about the energy power plants are discussed. The details about current and future wind power plants in Turkey are especially given. Incentives for wind power plant constructions are also presented in the study. As a result, it can be concluded that Turkey has great wind energy potential. The use of wind turbines can provide a considerable amount of the country’s energy need if bureaucratic and security problems are solved and if effective incentives can be given for renewable energy.