- Turkey has decided to allow licensed solar power plants to be located on forest land
- The land in question needs to be stony, rocky, unproductive area in the forest that is not technically suitable to set up forests
- The government has made this decision known through the country’s official gazette
The Turkish government has announced via the country’s national gazette that it will allow solar power plants to be installed on unproductive forest land, but these facilities need to be only licensed projects.
On February 15, 2023 in the Resmi Gazette number 32105, the government stated, “In stony, rocky, unproductive forest areas that do not have tree and shrub communities, forestry activities and technically it is not possible to establish forests, licensed solar power generation facilities may be allowed.”
This is an amendment of the regulation that previously meant licensed solar power plants cannot be set up in forest areas. However, unlicensed projects continue to be barred from using this land.
Currently dealing with the devastation caused by a massive earthquake on February 6, 2023, Turkey has been making way for solar energy deployments to accelerate in the country. In 2022, the Turkish environment ministry exempted permitting requirement for solar projects in irrigation (see Turkey Facilitates Solar For Irrigation Systems).
A 2022 report titled Solar Potential of Coal Sites in Turkey estimated over 13 GW of solar power capacity to come up in Turkey by repurposing open-pit coal mines that add up to 10.5 GW (see Convert Turkish Open-Cast Mines To Solar).
