Influence of government policies on renewable energy investments

In line with the 2023 national strategic goals of the ruling Turkish government, Renewable Energy Resources Support Mechanism, which has been implemented by the Renewable Energy Law No. 5346 issued in 2005, as the fundamental supporting mechanism to increase the share of renewable energy resources in power generation, had been announced to be terminated by the end of 2020 (AA, 2017) and what new mechanism will follow it still remains uncertain. The aim of this research is to provide alternatives to the existing policy mechanisms supporting the increase of the share of renewable energy resources in electricity power generation. Within the scope of the research, by realizing a detailed literature review, all available policies supporting renewable power generation in the world are idenfied. Implementations in member states of the European Union, in United States of America, in BRICS countries formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and in Turkey, and the applicability of these implementation to Turkish electricity market is investigated. Findings of the realized comparative analysis states that; (1) Tariff rates of the feed-in tariff mechanism should be reduced in time and an evolution towards a premium guarantee mechanism should be realized, (2) Research and development oriented Renewable Energy Resource Zone tenders should continue with some revisions, (3) Integration of renewable power generation to the electricity market will be completed with voluntary based renewable energy certificate system oriented to reduce green gas emissions, (4) A net metering system should be established to measure unlicensed power generation, and (5) With the increasing awareness of electricity consumers, voluntary power purchase agreements will become more important.