Abstract Public concern over energy supplies, prices, sustainability and efficiency has emerged as a major issue around the world. Yet most of what we know regarding public opinion on energy comes from North America and Europe. This paper presents the results from the 2016 Turkish Public Preferences for Energy Survey, which included 1204 respondents and examined Turkish residents’ household energy consumption, energy policy preferences, and environmental concerns. The main findings were that Turkish citizens consider natural gas and electricity highly expensive, view dependence on imported energy as Turkey's most pressing energy challenge, and recognize the problem of climate change. This lends public support for wind and solar power, but, at the same time, energy issues and the environment policies of political parties do not affect voting choices and political preferences.