Examining the site selection of wind power plants in Turkey in time: A GIS/spatial statistics-based approach

Energy requirement became one of the basic needs with machinery in agriculture and industralization. Energy had mainly supplied by fossil fuels until the reserves are reduced. Most countries are focused on renewable energy sources. Recently in Turkey and all over the world, wind energy utilization and technology is one of the blooming renewable energy source. Turkey has great potential because of wind speed and geography. Turkey hasn't achieved to use this potential comparing with developed countries, nevertheless there is significant progress, due to production licenses authorized by the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA). In this study, analysis and maps are created using geographic information system methods and various spatial analysis are made using spatial statistical methods with wind power plants turbine information is received from the Energy Market Regulatory Authority website. Wind power plants site selections are determined in which wind speed range with maps of wind speed is received from Renewable Energy General Directorate and Turkish State Meteorological Service. This study aims at showing how wind power plants that are installed and have production licenses between the years 1998-2014 site selections is changed according to years, identifying how wind speed are affected site selections and which regions these plants are accumulated. Also, this study is to demonstrate the progress that the energy sector in Turkey displayed, to determine future policies concerning the portion of power generated through renewable resources and to signify the role of windmills amongst renewable energy policies and development plans.