Turkey is one of the latest countries to implement a feed-in tariff (FiT) program for solar power. The program is an attractive one, as the flood of initial applications makes very clear.
The first round of applications, open last week (June 10–14), was for large projects (not home projects) — 1 megawatt (MW) or greater. The cap for this first round was 600 MW. The country received applications totaling about 8.9 gigawatts (GW) of capacity, approximately 15 times more than the cap.
Sunlight in Istanbul, Turkey. Photo Credit: josemanuelerre / CC BY-ND
494 applications were submitted to the Turkish Energy Regulatory Authority (EPDK), according to pv magazine.
“It remains unclear whether the regulator will grant licenses to the lowest-cost bidder in a reverse auction or whether it will involve a fixed FIT agreement with the off taking utility,” pv magazine writes.
“Turkey’s standard FIT is US$0.133/kWh, with a local content premium being paid additionally.“
Interestingly, while there were of course some foreign investors, the large majority of applications came from Turkish investors.
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