Assessment of Wind Energy Potential and Current Usage status in Turkey and in the World

Abstract

Among the renewable energy sources, wind energy has been the most increasing energy source in use around the world in recent years. Today, more than 100 countries in the world are producing electricity from wind energy. As the countries with the highest installed capacity of wind energy, China, the United States of America and Germany have been in the top 3 for a long time. According to the data from the year 2021, Turkey ranks 7th in Europe and 12th in the world in terms of installed wind power plant capacity. In this study, after examining the wind energy potentials and installed capacities of the other countries of the world and Turkey, their shares in the current electricity energy production and total energy consumption were examined. The conditions which would allow world consumption, including Turkey’s, to be met entirely from renewable energy sources, and the possible contribution of wind energy to these renewable sources have been estimated. Additionally, possible expected future developments in wind turbine technology are also presented.