With 1,526 MW installed capacity in electricity generation, Turkey ranks as one of the top players in the global geothermal energy market. However, based on some research done on Turkey’s geothermal reservoirs, the country is said to have 2000 MW potential for electricity generation in geothermal which points out that the country’s potential is not very high in terms of required temperature levels. On the other hand, the utilization level from this resource is 76% where we can say that Turkey makes the best use of this potential. Geothermal is also used as a thermal resource in Turkey. Hereby, the heat is used for household heating, greenhouses, thermal facilities, spas, and drying. The potential as a thermal resource is much higher compared to electricity generation potential and there is still a promising capacity to use that will also serve to efficiency purposes.
Considering all other renewable energy resources, geothermal has a higher initial investment which also explains relatively fewer players in this market. The market also requires high-level know-how and technical expertise. So according to these challenges and some other ones which are shown at the infographic above, the market is not fragmented, only having 22 active players.
There are other factors that have driven the geothermal energy market to grow specific to the resource but the feed-in tariff mechanism in Turkey has been the main driver for the market to reach its current installed capacity and embrace the 4th ranking among all countries in terms of installed capacities.