The Role of Legislations and Incentives in the Growth of a PV Market in a Developing Country

The policy transition process of any subject has mainly 4 consecutive steps to implement: making the policy decision, forming the amendments and new legislations, defining the incentives and starting the investments. Then, the amount of these investments and their turnovers reveal whether the sector has grown successfully and sustainably. Consequently, forming reliable and effective amendments, legislation and incentives is the key for the success of any policy. Solar electricity market in the trade of electricity production via the renewable energy policy transition is a good example and barometer for the importance and success of policy making processes, especially after the new legislations and incentives. Thus, the question arises on whether a country having less solar radiation and stronger incentives performs better than a country having abundant resources but inefficient legislation or vice versa. When the global success stories and good practices on solar energy are analyzed, it is comprehended that they are achieved by the countries whose legislation and incentives are defined in the most reliable and fastest way possible. Subsequently, both the solar market and industrial growth are directed by the quality of legislation and incentives, mainly the feed-in tariff schemes. Others are the easiness of the bureaucracy by minimizing the paper works and lowering the soft costs of projects. All make the solar electricity sector much more competitive and widespread. This study analyzes the effect of the improvement of legislation and incentives on the maturation of Turkish solar electricity sector and the link between the growth of the sector and proper legislation and incentives practices. Necessary amendments are done as needed using the feed-back obtained from the practice in the field. As the frequency of the amendments to form better legislations increased, the amount of installed power has increased too. Moreover, the number of the industrial plants manufacturing PV modules has increased with a similar trend. This study checks the scope of this relation by questioning whether it is worldwide or depends on any other sui-generis situations of specific countries. As a result, it can also be argued that the major catalyzer of PV market expansion and industry development in Turkey is the strong, usable and to-the-point legislative and incentive schemes in parallel with global best practices.