An overview of wind turbine manufacturing experience in Turkey

Official URL: http://www.irenec2011.com/giris.php

While wind energy has been utilized by windmills for ages, 1970s oil crises was a turning point for many developed governments to initiate massive efforts to develop modern wind turbines. Starting from almost none in early 1980s, the installed wind power capacity has reached 159.2 GW globally by the end of 2009. While the use of wind turbines for general power utilization dates back to 1986 with a 55 kW capacity, it took another decade for wind farms to appear in Turkey. The Electricity Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) started accepting wind power production licenses in 2007 reaching to a total of 78 GW wind capacity. As of today, the installed wind power capacity of Turkey is 1329 MW. The Electrical Power Resources Survey and Development Administration (EIEI) plans for a total of 20 GW wind energy within 10 years. In line with the global trend, it will be realistic to estimate Turkish wind market to reach 40 GW before 2030. There is extensive industrial infrastructure that will support production of large wind turbines in Turkey. However, due to lack of turbine technology and know-how only a limited portion of this infrastructure is used towards wind turbine production. Recently Ministry of Energy has initiated the National Wind Energy Systems Project (MILRES) with funding from TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey). The project aims to develop turbine technologies up to 2.5 MWs as well as to coach potential component manufacturers to develop production capabilities for large turbines.