Turkey has the potential to install 8 GW of solar PV capacity by deploying hybrid systems – adding solar to existing privately-owned wind and hydroelectric plants – according to a new report by energy think tank Ember. With this approach, it can ‘bypass’ grid constraints, which remain a key obstacle in scaling up renewable energy in the country.  

It would also increase the country’s current solar installed capacity by at least 35% to exceed 30 GW, making it the largest energy source in Turkey by installed capacity, claims Ember. 

At the end of May 2025, Turkey’s total installed solar capacity stood at 22.5 GW, comprising 1.4 GW of hybrid solar projects, according to the Ember report. The government aims to grow its total installed solar and wind energy capacity to 120 GW by 2035 (see Turkey Targets 120 GW Wind & Solar Power Capacity By 2035).   

Its latest analysis shows that between February 2024 and April 2025, the country rejected 65% of grid-connection applications for unlicensed solar power plants at the transmission level.

Since September 2024, no capacity has been available for transmission-level grid connections in Turkey, while only 0.52 GW was available for distribution-level connections for unlicensed power plants as of May 2025.  

In such a scenario, going hybrid by using the same transmission lines as existing wind and hydropower facilities, can make way for 8 GW of new solar capacity.

Nearly 46% of this potential hybrid solar capacity exists at dammed hydroelectric power plants, which is beyond the floating solar potential of 53 GW at Turkey’s ‘dam-type’ hydro power plants, according to the State Hydraulic Works.

The addition of solar power plants can also help offset the decline in hydropower generation due to droughts while maintaining the efficiency of the existing grid infrastructure.

Ember offers this recommendation based on the performance of existing hybrid projects. It explains that in 2024, Turkey’s 25 hybrid solar power plants boosted the output of their connected wind and hydro plants by 14%, raising the average capacity factor of the primary sources by 5 percentage points to 32%.

Analysts claim that if the 8 GW hybrid solar potential had been installed in 2024, wind and solar would have become Turkey’s 2nd largest source of electricity generation. 

While the prospects are promising, the report writers want the immediate challenges to be addressed by the policymakers. 

“We believe that the elimination of the capacity allocation problem in most of the applications for hybrid solar power plants, which are almost the only solution to drought in HEPP projects, is a necessity to protect the generation capacity of HEPPs and system supply security,” stated Elvan Tuğsuz Güven, chairman of the board at HESİAD, the country’s hydropower plants industry association.  

Additionally ‍Energy Analyst at Ember, Çağlar Çeliköz states, “Since hybrid solar power plants do not require new grid investment, they can be approved without waiting for capacity opening; with simple regulatory changes, such as the obligation to integrate into the plant site of the primary source and the removal of the capacity limit rule, Türkiye could quickly unlock its significant hybrid solar potential.”  

The complete assessment by Ember is available on its website.