Turkey Clarifies Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Requirements For Adjacent Unlicensed Solar Farms And Mining Capacity Increases

Recent development

On April 8, 2015, the Ministry of Environment and Urban Affairs issued a circular clarifying the circumstances under which an EIA is required under its December 2014 regulation (the "EIA Regulation") for unlicensed solar farms (solar farms with an installed capacity of less than 1 MW) and mining project capacity increases.

What's new

Under the EIA Regulation, solar power plants with an installed capacity of less than 1 MW are exempt from preparing an EIA. To prevent abuse of the regulation, the circular clarifies that, if the same investor owns multiple unlicensed solar power plants on the same or adjacent (bitişik nizam) parcels of land, the total installed capacity must be considered. If the total installed capacity of the plants is 10 MW or less, the plants are collectively subject to an EIA evaluation; if the total installed capacity exceeds 10 MW, an EIA approval is required.