Energy sector and wind energy potential in Turkey

Turkey has very limited indigenous energy resources and has to import around 65% of primary energy to meet her needs. It is a large importer of primary energy despite having ample renewable energy sources.Turkey’s vibrant economy has led to increased energy demand in recent years. This situation is expected to continue in the near future because its economy is dependent mainly on imported oil, natural gas and electricity.This paper presents the prevailing and the expected energy situation and energy demand. Wind energy potential in Turkey is also discussed.     

Energy production and sustainable energy policies in Turkey

Turkey's demand for energy and electricity is increasing rapidly. Turkey is heavily dependent on expensive imported energy resources that place a big burden on the economy and air pollution is becoming a great environmental concern in the country. Turkey's energy production meets nearly 28% of its total primary energy consumption. As would be expected, the rapid expansion of energy production and consumption has brought with it a wide range of environmental issues at the local, regional and global levels. With respect to global environmental issues, Turkey's carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions have grown along with its energy consumption. States have played a leading role in protecting the environment by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). In this regard, renewable energy resources appear to be the one of the most efficient and effective solutions for clean and sustainable energy development in Turkey. Turkey presently has considerable renewable energy sources. The most important renewable sources are hydropower, biomass, geothermal, solar and wind. Turkey's geographical location has several advantages for extensive use of most of these renewable energy sources. Turkey has a great and ever-intensifying need for power and water supplies and they also have the greatest remaining hydro potential. Hydropower and especially small hydropower are emphasized as Turkey's renewable energy sources. Turkey's hydro electric potential can meet 33–46% of its electric energy demand in 2020 and this potential may easily and economically be developed. This paper presents a review of the potential and utilization of the renewable energy sources in Turkey.     

Hydropower–water and renewable energy in Turkey: Sources and policy

Turkey's energy consumption has been growing much faster than its production. It forces Turkey to make a rapid action to supply energy demand. From the viewpoint of primary energy sources (petroleum and natural gas), Turkey is not a rich country, but it has an abundant hydropower potential to be used for generation of electricity. Hydropower is the most important kind of renewable, sustainable energy and a proven technology for electricity generation. The aim of this paper is to discuss sources and policy of hydropower, water and renewable energy in Turkey and compares the hydropower application with Europe.     

As a renewable energy hydropower for sustainable development in Turkey

The most important renewable sources are hydropower, biomass, geothermal, solar and wind. Turkey's geographical location has several advantages for extensive use of most of these renewable energy sources. In recently, electricity has demand increased significantly; it is the fastest growing end-use of energy. Therefore, technical, economic and environmental benefits of hydroelectric power make it an important contributor to the future world energy mix. In the world, particularly in the developing countries renewable energy resources appear to be one of the most efficient and effective solutions for sustainable energy development in Turkey. Turkey's geographical location has several advantages for extensive use of most of the renewable energy sources. This paper deals with policies to meet increasing energy and electricity demand for sustainable energy development in Turkey. Turkey has a total gross hydropower potential of 433 GWh/year, but only 125 GWh/year of the total hydroelectric potential of Turkey can be economically used.     

Renewable energy and coal use in Turkey

Turkey becomes more dependent on foreign countries for fulfilling its energy needs day by day. While 77% of the overall primary energy consumption in 1970 was met by the domestic energy sources, this percentage decreased to 28% in 2003. As for the electricity production, while 89% of the produced electricity was produced by using the domestic sources, this percentage decreased to 68% in 1970 and 44% in 2003. The percentage of dependence on foreign countries increased year by year and reached 56% in 2003. The energy sources of Turkey are renewable energy sources and coal. If both of these energy sources are used effectively, Turkey will have a capacity to produce its overall electricity production using its own sources. The incorrect policies applied in Turkey introduced oil as a primary energy source for electricity production in 1970s and Turkey defrayed the cost of this wrong application severely by oil crisis. After 2000, natural gas, which was completely imported, was introduced as an energy source and its share in electricity production reached 45%. It is vital for Turkey to question this situation in order to ensure a sustainable development using reliable energy sources.     

Global warming and renewable energy sources for sustainable development in Turkey

Turkey, with its young population and growing energy demand per person, its fast growing urbanization, and its economic development, has been one of the fast growing power markets of the world for the last two decades. It is expected that the demand for electric energy in Turkey will be 300 billion kWh by the year 2010 and 580 billion kWh by the year 2020. Turkey is heavily dependent on expensive imported energy resources that place a big burden on the economy and air pollution is becoming a great environmental concern in the country. In this regard, renewable energy resources appear to be the one of the most efficient and effective solutions for clean and sustainable energy development in Turkey. Turkey's geographical location has several advantages for extensive use of most of these renewable energy sources. This article presents a review of the potential and utilization of the renewable energy sources in Turkey.     

Hydropower for sustainable water and energy development

Turkey has a total gross hydropower potential of 433 GWh/year, but only 125 GWh/year of the total hydroelectric potential of Turkey can be economically used. By the commissioning of new hydropower plants, which are under construction, 36% of the economically usable potential of the country would be tapped. Turkey presently has considerable renewable energy sources. The most important renewable sources are hydropower, biomass, geothermal, solar and wind. Turkey's geographical location has several advantages for extensive use of most of these renewable energy sources. Over the last two decades, global electricity production has more than doubled and electricity demand is rising rapidly around the world as economic development spreads to emerging economies. Not only has electricity demand increased significantly, it is the fastest growing end-use of energy. Therefore, technical, economic and environmental benefits of hydroelectric power make it an important contributor to the future world energy mix, particularly in the developing countries.     

The role of hydroelectric power and contribution of small hydropower plants for sustainable development in Turkey

Turkey is a rapidly growing country regarding its economy and population and therefore has a large and continuously increasing energy demand. Turkey mostly meets its energy demand from imported fossil sources. However apart from petroleum and natural gas, Turkey has almost all kinds of energy resources and hence it would not need to meet its energy demand through import. In addition, Turkey has very large potential of hydraulic energy but to date only one-third of this significant economical potential could be used. This ratio seems insufficient when compared with that of European countries.In this paper the role of hydroelectric power, its potential and its present status are investigated in detail for Turkey. Especially the small scale hydropower plant is emphasized as Turkey's renewable energy source. Furthermore the water resources of Turkey are examined.     

Some aspects on hydraulic energy and environment in Turkey

Turkey is not rich in petroleum and natural gas resources and is dependent on energy. Electricity generation in Turkey from its own domestic resources is, at present, about 40% and is expected to be at 20% by the year 2020. It has been planned that the maximum capacity for hydraulic and other national resources will be reached by the year 2020. This means that the total electricity generated by domestic resources is to be 245 TWh/yr, and the remaining electricity demand of about 302 TWh/yr for the year 2020 must be ensured by imported resources. In Turkey, hydropower projects are part of integrated water resources development. Most new powerplants will be developed as build, operate and transfer (BOT) or build, own and operate (BOO ) projects with the private sector. It is expected that many foreign investors and financiers will also be interested in the Turkish hydropower market. For a sustainable development the next investments should be made for clean technologies such as hydropower. Depending upon the latest technological developments, other economic and political factors will also affect the quality of the environment.     

Renewable energy market conditions and barriers in Turkey

Decentralized wind, hydropower, biogas and biomass, geothermal, solar thermal and solar electricity energy systems are the most commonly found renewable energy technologies promoted for rural energy supply within sustainable developments programs. They are, therefore, seen to have a central place in the practice of sustainable development and in allowing less development countries to bypass the environmentally damaging fossil fuel intensive paths made by industrialized countries. On the political front, many less development countries are critical of pressure on them to adopt environmental energy technologies.Turkey is situated the meeting point of three continents (Asia, Europe and Africa) and stands as a bridge between Asia and Europe. The country is located in southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia. As Turkey’s economy has expanded in recent years, the consumption of primary energy has increased. Presently in order to increase the energy production from domestic energy resources, decrease the use of fossil fuels as well as reduce of green house gas emissions different renewable energy sources are used for energy production in Turkey. The share of energy production from renewable energy sources has increased during the last 10 years. Turkey must import most of the energy to meet her needs. Turkey also has a large potential for renewable energies. The lack of knowledge about renewable energy technologies by most policy-makers, potential consumers, and energy firm managers has played against renewable energy developments. The paper presents renewable energy used in Turkey and Europe Union and evaluation of the market conditions and barriers of renewable energy use in Turkey.     

Renewable and sustainable energy use in Turkey: a review

Turkey is an energy importing nation with more than half of our energy requirements met by imported fuels. Air pollution is becoming a significant environmental concern in the country. In this regard, renewable energy resources are becoming attractive for sustainable energy development and environmental pollution mitigation in Turkey. Turkey's geographical location has several advantages for extensive use of most of these renewable energy sources. Because of this and our limited fossil fuel resources, a gradual shift from fossil fuels to renewables seems to be a serious alternative for Turkey's energy future. This article presents a review of the present energy situation and assesses sustainability, technical, and economical potential of renewable energy sources, and future policies for the energy sector in Turkey. Throughout the paper, problems relating to renewable energy sources, environment, and sustainable development are discussed for both current and future energy investments. The renewable energy potential of the country and its present status are evaluated.     

Renewable energy policy in Turkey with the new legal regulations

Since the energy crises in the 1970’s, public and private decision makers are considering how to achieve a sustainable transition from fossil fuel based energy to sustainable and clean energies - namely renewable energies. Combined with the improvement of energy efficiency and the rational use of energy, renewable energy can provide everything fossil fuels currently offer in terms of heating and cooling, electricity generation and transportation. Renewable energy technologies posses many long term benefits including energy security, job creation, business opportunities, sustainable development and prevention of global warming.Turkey’s population is growing at an annual rate of 1.04%. If Turkey uses only traditional energy sources, it simply will not have enough energy capacity for its population. Renewable energy sources have the potential to make a large contribution to Turkey’s sustainable and independent energy future.Turkey aims to utilize its energy potential, including from renewable sources in a cost-effective manner. Turkey targets the share of renewable resources in electricity generation to be at least 30% by 2023 has in its 2009 Electricity Market and Security of Supply Strategy. Positive achievements have been obtained in renewable energy development and manufacturing in Turkey over the past decade. The renewable energy related legislation has been intensified. To meet its 30% target, the current promotion mechanism for renewable sources of electricity relies on feed-in tariffs for different renewable energy sources. Large hydropower is already competitive to conventional fossil-based electricity, so feed-in tariffs in the new RE Law are set to facilitate expanding the deployment of other, less mature renewable energy technologies.     

The status of primary fossil energy resources in Turkey

The lack of primary fossil energy resources in Turkey is an important problem. Turkey is one of the top 25 nations in energy consumption. Its domestic electricity demand is increasing by 6% per year. Turkey is an import-dependent country because the production of natural gas and oil in Turkey is very low. Turkey must import 93% of its oil needs and 99% of its natural gas requirements. The aim of this study is to investigate the current use and the available potential of primary fossil energy resources in Turkey.     

The role of hydropower in meeting Turkey's electric energy demand

The inherent technical, economic and environmental benefits of hydroelectric power, make it an important contributor to the future world energy mix, particularly in the developing countries. These countries, such as Turkey, have a great and ever-intensifying need for power and water supplies and they also have the greatest remaining hydro potential. From the viewpoint of energy sources such as petroleum and natural gas, Turkey is not a rich country; but it has an abundant hydropower potential to be used for generation of electricity and must increase hydropower production in the near future. This paper deals with policies to meet the increasing electricity demand for Turkey. Hydropower and especially small hydropower are emphasized as Turkey's renewable energy sources. The results of two case studies, whose results were not taken into consideration in calculating Turkey's hydro electric potential, are presented. Turkey's small hydro power potential is found to be an important energy source, especially in the Eastern Black Sea Region. The results of a study in which Turkey's long-term demand has been predicted are also presented. According to the results of this paper, Turkey's hydro electric potential can meet 33–46% of its electric energy demand in 2020 and this potential may easily and economically be developed.     

A review on the renewable energy development in Algeria: Current perspective,energy scenario and sustainability issues

The quality of life and safeness of the present and future generations are strongly intertwined with the availability of energy sources and the sustainability of the energy infrastructure. Energy consumption in developed countries grows at a rate of approximately 1% per year, and that of developing countries, 5% per year (Muneer et al., 2005 [1]). Present reserves of oil and natural gas can only cover consumption at this rate for the next 50 years in the case of oil, and for the next 70 years in the case of natural gas. Therefore, one of the fundamental priorities for a country such as Algeria is to use several renewable energies (RE) sources and environmentally friendly energy conversion technologies. Algeria is endowed with large reserves of energy sources, mainly hydrocarbons and a considerable potential for the utilisation of RE sources especially with respect to solar energy. Algeria has the potential to be one of the major contributors in solar energy and become a role model to other countries in the world. RE are now one of the major elements of Algeria's energy policy and in view of boosting the national effort in terms of RE beyond 2011, Algeria has developed a national programme for the period 2011–2030 to promote concrete actions in the fields of energy efficiency and RE in line with the approach adopted by the government on February 3, 2011. Besides, it confirms Algerian's ambition to become an international hub for industrial and energy production and exportation in the solar sector. With this in mind, along with the environmental responsibility issues, public awareness gradually increased over the last seven years and alternative energy resources have become a new area of interest. As a tangible target, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) strategic plan aims to reach a 40% share of RE (mainly solar) in electric energy production by 2030. The various future projects are all factors that will undoubtedly give Algeria an important role in the implementation of RE technology in North Africa, the capacity for providing sustainable supply of cost-effective electricity from RE sources for the needs of the population, and the possibility of even exporting 10,000 MW to neighbouring and European market. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the existing renewable energy sector and a forecast for demand growth, additional capacity, investment requirements and Algeria's ambitious objectives of use of RE and environment protection. The paper also discusses the current energy scenario and explores the alternative energy like solar and wind to ensure energy security supply, reliability, greater efficiency in energy conversion, transmission and utilisation. Particular attention is paid to Algeria's global and sustainable solutions of the environmental challenges and the problems of conservation of fossil energy resources under the clean development mechanism (CDM) structure. The report also provides a detailed analysis of the existing renewable energy sector and a forecast for demand growth, additional capacity, and investment requirements     

Turkey's Renewable Energy Facilities in the Near Future

In this work, renewable energy facilities of Turkey were investigated. Electricity is mainly produced by thermal power plants, consuming coal, lignite, natural gas, fuel oil and geothermal energy, and hydro power plants in Turkey. Turkey has no large oil and gas reserves. The main indigenous energy resources are lignite, hydro and biomass. Turkey has to adopt new, long-term energy strategies to reduce the share of fossil fuels in primary energy consumption. For these reasons, the development and use of renewable energy sources and technologies are increasingly becoming vital for sustainable economic development of Turkey. The most significant developments in renewable production are observed hydropower and geothermal energy production. Renewable electricity facilities mainly include electricity from biomass, hydropower, geothermal, and wind and solar energy sources. Biomass cogeneration is a promising method for production bioelectricity.     

Renewable energy in the Palestinian Territories: Opportunities and challenges

The Palestinian Territories relies on Israel for 100% of its fossil fuel imports and for 87% of its electricity imports. Total energy consumption in the Palestinian Territories is the lowest in the region and costs more than anywhere else in the Middle East. The purpose of this paper is to present the current energy situation in the Palestinian Territories, evaluate the potential of renewable energies in meeting part of the energy demand and discuss the challenges and benefits of using these types of energies. It is shown that the main renewable energy sources in the Palestinian Territories are solar, wind and biomass. Using the available renewable energy sources in the Palestinian Territories may significantly decrease the energy reliance on neighboring countries and improve the Palestinian population's access to energy. It is estimated that solar sources have the potential to account for 13% of electricity demand and wind energy for 6.6%. The conversion of animal waste into biogas has the potential to meet the needs of 20% of the rural population. The conversion of unused agricultural residue into biodiesel could replace 5% of the imported diesel.     

An exposé of bioenergy and its potential and utilization in Turkey

Turkey is heavily dependent on expensive imported energy resources (oil, gas and coal) that place a big burden on the economy. Air pollution is also becoming a great environmental concern in the country. In this regard, renewable energy resources appear to be one of the most efficient and effective solutions for clean and sustainable energy development in Turkey. Turkey's renewable sources are the second largest source for energy production after coal. About two-thirds of the renewable energy produced is obtained from bioenergy, which is used to meet a variety of energy needs, including generating electricity, heating homes, fueling vehicles and providing process heat for industrial facilities. The amount of usable bioenergy potential of Turkey is approximately 17 Mtoe. This article not only presents a review of the potential and utilization of the bioenergy in Turkey but also provides some guidelines for policy makers.     

Energy production,consumption, policies and recent developments in Turkey

Many factors to be appropriately addressed in moving towards energy sustainability in Turkey are examined. These include harnessing sustainable energy sources, utilizing sustainable energy carriers, increasing efficiency, reducing environmental impact and improving socioeconomic acceptability. The latter factor includes community involvement and social acceptability, economic affordability and equity, lifestyles, land use and aesthetics. On the other hand, Turkey, with its young population and growing energy demand per person, its fast growing urbanization, and its economic development, has been one of the fast growing power markets of the world for the last two decades. Turkey is heavily dependent on expensive imported energy resources that place a big burden on the economy and air pollution is becoming a great environmental concern in the country. In this regard, renewable energy resources appear to be the one of the most efficient and effective solutions for clean and sustainable energy development in Turkey. Turkey's geographical location has several advantages for extensive use of most of these renewable energy sources. This article presents a review of the potential and utilization of the energy sources in Turkey.