The share of natural gas in Turkey's electricity production declined to its lowest level in the last 20 years to 30.66 percent in 2018 generating 90.87 gigawatt-hours, according to official figures on Thursday.
The last time the share of natural gas in electricity production was so low was in 1999 at 31.2 percent, and 2016 also showed a low percentage share at 32.5 percent. According to data compiled by Anadolu Agency, Turkey produced 293.78 gigawatt-hours of electricity in 2018 - a production increase of 1.11 percent from 290.55 gigawatt-hours in 2017.
The highest volume of natural gas for electricity production was seen last July while the lowest volume was last May. In July, a total of 10.5 gigawatt-hours of electricity was produced from natural gas and in May only 5.7 gigawatt-hours was generated. Coal's share in electricity production was 33 percent in 2017 but this increased to 38 percent in 2018 with a volume of 111.82 gigawatt-hours.
The production share from wind also rose from 6 percent to 6.75 percent, equivalent to 19.76 gigawatt-hours. Electricity production from hydro sources totaled 59.72 gigawatt-hours with a share of 20.32 percent. Geothermal solar, fuel oil and bioenergy sources produced the remaining 4 percent of electricity.
(Anadolu Agency)
