WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson attended the Turkish Wind Energy Congress on 7 and 8 November. The Turkish wind industry has big ambitions. The Government wants lots more wind, not least to strengthen Turkey’s energy independence. They need to get their auctions right and keep supporting their supply chain.

Turkey has 12 GW of wind today (all onshore) generating 11% of its electricity. The Government wants to add a further 28 GW by 2035 including 3 GW of offshore wind. And the projects are there for this. There are 26 GW of onshore wind projects under development. And the Government is negotiating a MoU with a UAE developer for 2.5 GW offshore wind in the Sea of Marmara.

Building all this new capacity is not just good for Turkey’s energy security. It’s good industrial policy too. Turkey already has a strong wind energy supply chain around Izmir. There are 13 factories producing towers, blades, gearboxes and generators. 80% of what they produce is exported, mostly to Europe. This makes Turkey an essential part of the wider European wind energy supply chain. And there’s ample room for growth. Further expansion around the port of Çandarl? can take the Turkish industry to the next level. This will mean even more economic development and local jobs.

And there’s more… Turkey has large deposits of the rare earths used in the permanent magnets in wind turbines. Exploiting this would help reduce Europe’s huge dependence on China for these materials. Turkey also processes the glass fibres that are used in wind turbine blades. They could do more of this, which would also help reduce our dependence on China for glass fibre.

The Turkish Government is doing many good things to support the expansion of wind energy. But there’s one thing they risk getting wrong. They want each MW of new wind energy capacity to be matched by a MW of new storage capacity. No other country does this “100% storage”. Even those who want to create orders for their battery factories are only doing 20% storage. This would also be a much more reasonable number for Turkey.

WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson said: “Turkey plays a central role in the wider European wind energy supply chain. They produce many components, most of which they export to the EU. They want to massively expand their wind energy – and their supply chain. Great. Even better they have the rare earth deposits Europe’s wind turbines need. The EU should embrace what Turkey has to offer in the build-out of wind energy.”