Renewable Energy Investments in Turkey – A Case for SME Investment Analysis on Solar Energy

Turkey is among the fastest growing and developing economies in the world over the past decade. Energy is one of the important topics for its economic and social development. Increased energy consumption in manufacturing and standards of living in the growing population causes some problems, especially greenhouse gas emissions, land, water and oil usage. Establishing control over these pollutant factors requires increased efficiency in energy production, transmission, distribution and consumption. Finding alternatives to ensure needed energy along with consideration of environmental aspects raises the importance of energy sustainability. Local energy sources, policies and regulations become important in order to enhance energy supply and consume efficiency in conjunction with economic development. This study summarizes Turkish governmental regulations regarding renewable energies especially photovoltaic energy production and regarding incentives. With consideration of sustainability effect and efficiency of energy consumption in manufacturing industry, the importance of Turkey’s energy demand and supply becomes relevant for the developed countries which purchase products with different complexity from Turkish suppliers. To this aim, in this study, importance of individual initiatives by local Turkish suppliers for solar energy supply is referred and an example for energy production with a certain capacity is represented. Based on this calculation the practicability of implementation of photovoltaic energy system is analyzed. Pros and cons of renewable energy investments are evaluated.