Turkey

U.S. President Donald Trump has removed Turkey from the list of developing nations that are exempted from Section 201 tariffs on PV cells and modules.

The government has finally issued a net metering scheme for solar systems not exceeding 10 kW of generation capacity – the country’s first attempt to support small scale PV. New rules for larger, unlicensed projects have also been introduced, with the size limit for eligible systems raised to 5 MW.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has acquired a $100 million stake in a Turkish renewable energy company as part of its ongoing efforts to diversify clean energy in the country away from hydro power.

The world had more than half a terawatt of PV generation capacity at the end of last year as emerging solar markets picked up the slack caused by Beijing’s subsidy about-turn to the tune of a 20% rise in installations outside China.

Turkey’s unlicensed solar market has been the powerhouse of new PV capacity. Given the unlicensed segment is coming to an end, investors are questioning the prospects of the licensed alternative. pv magazine has tracked the progress and future potential of Turkey’s licensed PV market.

All the fundamentals are in place for Turkey to be a leading light in solar but an all-too-familiar lack of policy certainty, coupled with a troubled macroeconomic backdrop, mean the nation is still unable to realize its PV potential.

Celebrating its one year anniversary during Solarex, Turkish monitoring and AI startup Solarify is looking to reduce false alarms from utility scale PV projects. Based out of an incubator in Ege University in the coastal city of Izmir, Solarify is on the hunt for international partners.

As the Turkish market cools as the result of a policy vacuum, rumors are now circulating that its developers and installers are being hampered by restricted module imports. While some exceptions apply, claims are the measures, described as “blatant protectionism” by some are damaging the market.

The Turkish solar market finds itself at a crossroads in 2019, with previous policy settings coming to an end and more questions than answers being raised by recent government efforts. While the YEKA projects to date have delivered little in terms of installations, Muren Guler from Global Energy Ltd believes that ‘Mini YEKA’ could provide just the boost manufacturers, suppliers, and developers are looking for.

The clouds gathering over Turkey’s 1 GW solar park in Konya, the first YEKA tender, are dominating discussion among the country’s PV players. Developments surrounding the Konya tender illustrate the Turkish solar market’s challenges, as the country’s unsteady economy and its policy preference for local manufacturing appear to be acting as a brake on installations.