Renewable energy sources for clean and sustainable energy policies in Turkey

Energy is an essential factor to achieve sustainable development. So, countries striving to this end are seeking to reassess their energy systems with a view towards planning energy programmes and strategies in line with sustainable development goals and objectives. 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. States have played a leading role in protecting the environment by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. Turkey is an energy importing country with more than half of the energy requirement being supplied by imports, and air pollution is becoming a great environmental concern in the country. On the other hand, Turkey's geographical location has several advantages for extensive use of most of the renewable energy sources. In this regard, renewable energy resources appear the most efficient and effective solutions for clean and sustainable energy development in Turkey. This paper provides an overview of global energy use and renewables for clean and sustainable energy policies in Turkey.     

The reform in the Turkish natural gas market: A critical evaluation

Turkey is in a strategically advantageous position in terms of its natural gas market. Being in the middle of Europe and energy-rich countries of Central Asia, it can be an energy corridor between these two regions. It can import gas from a number of countries and diversify its sources. This situation may also provide motivation for a competitive gas market. The recent reform in the market, which began in 2001, was an attempt to strengthen the natural gas market to this end. However, the reform has not worked out as expected so far. This article discusses recent restructuring efforts in the Turkish natural gas market. We focus on the legal structure and economic consequences of the legal change within the international economic relations. After presenting a detailed discussion of the legal framework, we draw attention to the problems of the industry and difficulties in the transition to a more competitive market structure. In the end, we touch upon some regulatory issues and potential conflicts.     

Inflation controlled by energy prices

The inflation experienced in the world economy over the last decade could have been considerably reduced if the world had been less dependent upon energy imports. Reduction of imports by an average of half reduces worldwide inflation by more than 30%. Countries supplying their own energy may benefit by having lower inflation than energy importing countries. A low inflation rate is most easily achieved if the price of domestically produced energy follows the national price index. In most countries some alternative energy sources may be competitive to imported energy when all the economic benefits of domestic energy production are taken into consideration.     

A snapshot of geothermal energy potential and utilization in Turkey

Turkey is one of the countries with significant potential in geothermal energy. It is estimated that if Turkey utilizes all of her geothermal potential, she can meet 14% of her total energy need (heat and electricity) from geothermal sources. Therefore, today geothermal energy is an attractive option in Turkey to replace fossil fuels. Besides, increase in negative effects of fossil fuels on the environment has forced many countries, including Turkey, to use renewable energy sources. Also, Turkey is an energy importing country; more than two-thirds of her energy requirement is supplied by imports. In this context, geothermal energy appears to be one of the most efficient and effective solutions for sustainable energy development and environmental pollution prevention in Turkey. Since geothermal energy will be used more and more in the future, its current potential, usage, and assessment in Turkey is the focus of the present study. The paper not only presents a review of the potential and utilization of the geothermal energy in Turkey but also provides some guidelines for policy makers.     

Energy policies of Turkey during the period 1923–2003

Turkey has been developing since the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. Turkish Government played a leading role in energy production and in energy use, as well as in other fields, and implemented several policies to increase electricity production. By 1950s, thermal power plants were used commonly in electricity production. In the following years, hydroelectric power plants were put into operation in order to use the considerable amount of water resources of the country. Coal-fired power plants using national resources accounted for 70–80% of the thermal electricity production. After 1960s, oil, an imported resource, was replaced with national resources due to two petroleum crises. Therefore, the proportion of use of lignite in the energy field increased. By 1980s, energy production lead by the government went on. Afterwards, applications of liberal economy policies resulted in implementation of different energy production methods, and the country had a increasing tendency to meet energy demand by imports as a result of improvement in international economic relations. Natural gas became prevalent in the country as well as all over the world and accounted for 45% of the electricity production in 2003. In this paper, implemented policies in the energy field during different periods since the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 was investigated.     

China's Sovereign Wealth Fund Investments in overseas energy: The energy security perspective

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) are state-owned investment funds that invest in real and financial assets. Since the global financial crisis in 2008, SWFs' investments have resulted in national security concerns of host countries because SWFs continue to expand rapidly and have become increasingly active in real-time strategic transactions. Given this background, China, which has the biggest SWF in the world, is facing severe challenges of energy resources shortages while its plan is to accomplish social and economic development goals. Energy security is a key driving force of the energy investment policy of China's SWFs. This makes the SWF investments more complicated and more politically sensitive. The combination of sovereign rights and the strategic importance of energy also makes geopolitics more complicated and brings more uncertainty to SWF investments. This article explores the relationship between energy security and energy investments of China's SWFs. It is recognised that the energy investment of SWFs must follow a sustainable path to coordinate energy security, economic growth, return on investment and national security concerns. Government policymakers are urged to balance the financial and political returns on SWFs against potential negative effects. The conclusion presents insights for policymakers, energy scholars and SWF researchers.     

Interpreting the dynamic nexus between energy consumption and economic growth: Empirical evidence from Russia

Research on the nexus between energy consumption and economic growth is a fundamental topic for energy policy making and low-carbon economic development. Russia proves the third largest energy consumption country in the world in recent years, while little research has shed light upon its energy consumption issue till now, especially its energy–growth nexus. Therefore, this paper empirically investigates the dynamic nexus of the two variables in Russia based on the state space model. The results indicate that, first of all, Russia's energy consumption is cointegrated with its economic growth in a time-varying way though they do not have static or average cointegration relationship. Hence it is unsuitable to merely portrait the nexus in an average manner. Second, ever since the year of 2000, Russia's energy efficiency has achieved much more promotion compared with that in previous decades, mainly due to the industrial structure adjustment and technology progress. Third, among BRIC countries, the consistency of Russia's energy consumption and economic growth appears the worst, which suggests the complexity of energy–growth nexus in Russia. Finally, there exists bi-directional causality between Russia's energy consumption and economic growth, though their quantitative proportional relation does not have solid foundation according to the cointegration theory.     

Importance of biomass energy as alternative to other sources in Turkey

Energy plays a vital role in socio–economic development and raising standards of human beings. Turkey is a rapidly growing country; both its population and economy are expanding each year so its energy demand increases correspondingly and this increasing demand has to be met for keeping sustainable development in the economy and raising living conditions of mankind. Although Turkey has many energy sources, it is a big energy importer. Turkey has a lot of potential to supply its own energy, which could be put to use in order to avoid this energy dependence. Additionally, Turkey is a country that has an abundance of renewable energy sources and can essentially provide all energy requirements from indigenous energy sources. Biomass is one of the most promising energy sources considered to be alternative to conventional ones.     

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.     

Sustainable development of Turkey: Deployment of geothermal resources for carbon capture,utilization, and storage

As a developing country, Turkey’s sustainable development objectives converge on robust and sustainable economic development. The increase in its energy and electricity demand is attributed to the growth of population, urbanization, and industrialization parallel to economic and social growth. Instead of fulfilling the obligation to protect the environment arising from international agreements and achieving desired sustainable development, the dependency on imported fossil fuel in electrical energy production and energy-intensive economic growth results in intensified CO₂ emission as well as ironically negative economic output. Therefore, Turkey is forced to exploit its indigenous sources such as coal (which unfortunately increases atmospheric Green House Gas “GHG” emissions) and renewable resources. However, high GHG emission – mainly CO_{2 –} of Turkey’s coal power plants impairs deployment of indigenous sources for power generation. Indeed, there is a necessity of technical approaches for higher heat extraction efficiencies and mitigation of high concentration of energy-related CO₂ emission. Admittedly, “Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS)” employing conventional hydrothermal resources offers highly efficient heat extraction, geological CO₂ sequestration, and utilization of CO₂ for power generation rather than considering CO₂ as an effluent. Although there are research gaps and lack of field scale experiment, the economic and environmental viability of implementing CCUS in Turkey can be improved by pilot or field scale projects whereby the presence of these projects commences technological and experimental advances in capturing CO₂ either from geothermal power plants or indigenous coal power plants, transporting it to the proven geothermal geologic site, and generating power. Apart from this, the “CO_{2 –} Plume Geothermal Systems (CPG)” compared to unconventional and conventional geothermal systems would commit vigorous potential for continual improvement in economic feasibility of CCUS without a guaranteed return on power generation investments in Turkey. Hence, legislations concerning incentives in CCUS would foster further improvements in the deployment of geothermal resources to pursue sustainable development in Turkey.     

Energy supply security and geopolitics: A European perspective

The security of energy supply to the EU is examined in the context of two storylines. Markets and Institutions exemplifies an economically and politically integrated, multilateral world with effective institutions and markets. Regions and Empires involves a world broken up in rival political and economic blocks, competing for resources and markets via political, economic and military power. It is shown that these storylines have a significant impact on the development of the energy market, on the way in which energy supply may be secured and on the effect and applicability of the several types of instruments available. The current EU is geared towards enlargement and a deepening of economic integration, based on the tenets of the post-1945 multilateral world system. The present world tends towards Regions and Empires and suggests that the EU may have to reorient its energy security policy. Energy policy must become an integral part of EU external trade and foreign relations and security policy. The EU should develop its own strategy, actively investing in dialogues with producer countries in the Persian Gulf and Africa and with Russia. Sustainable prosperity and governance in these regions will support EU energy security.     

Energy consumption,economic growth and prices: A reassessment using panel VECM for developed and developing countries

This paper reinvestigates the energy consumption–GDP growth nexus in a panel error correction model using data on 20 net energy importers and exporters from 1971 to 2002. Among the energy exporters, there was bidirectional causality between economic growth and energy consumption in the developed countries in both the short and long run, while in the developing countries energy consumption stimulates growth only in the short run. The former result is also found for energy importers and the latter result exists only for the developed countries within this category. In addition, compared to the developing countries, the developed countries’ elasticity response in terms of economic growth from an increase in energy consumption is larger although its income elasticity is lower and less than unitary. Lastly, the implications for energy policy calling for a more holistic approach are discussed.     

Control of vehicular emission using innovative energy solutions comprising of hydrogen for transportation sector in Pakistan: A case study of Lahore City

Energy, either from non-renewable or renewable sources, is of paramount importance as the progress of a country is gauged on economic development. However, with the use of non-renewable energy resources, the environmental degradation is exacerbating with every passing day in developing countries including Pakistan. On the contrary, the developed countries are resorting to sustainable and renewable energy resources to achieve sustainable development goals. The primary consumer of the non-renewable energy sources is transportation sector in Pakistan, with the total consumption amounting to almost two-third of the total utilization. Keeping in view the existing energy expenditures and its share in environmental pollution by transportation sector, Lahore Metropolitan area has been selected for this research paper. This research analyzed the environmental data collected from multiple road junctions of Lahore City. In light of the existing data, the research exhibited improvements in overall environmental quality by comparing the existing and proposed energy solutions comprising of Hydrogen in transportation sector. The comparison carried out by utilizing International and National Environmental quality standards. Additionally, research also addresses the energy savings with the transition from non-renewable energy sources to renewable and innovative energy solutions.     

The role of energy efficiency and renewable energies in the future world energy market

The world population is rising rapidly, notably in the developing countries. Historical trends suggest that increased annual energy use per capita is a good surrogate for the standard of living factors which promote a decrease in population growth rate. If these trends continue, the stabilization of the world's population will require the increased use of all sources of energy as cheap oil and gas are depleted. The improved efficiency of energy use and renewable energy sources will be essential to stabilizing population, while providing a decent standard all over the world.     

Bio-energy in the Baltic States: Current policy and future development

The rapid economic growth in the Baltic States requires significant alterations in their energy sectors. This paper describes current status and specific features of the energy systems in the Baltic States, and in particular discusses the role of the renewable energy sources in the primary energy supply and energy transformation sector of these countries. The structure of the energy sectors inherited from the Former Soviet Union and constructed through several decades was inappropriate in terms of size of these countries and their access to primary energy. Based on common principles changes in the primary energy supply during the period 1990–2003 in each country are analysed. This paper presents analysis of the main driving forces for future usage of bio-energy, such as sound general energy policy in the Baltic States, favourable legislative framework, implementation of the EU Directives and corresponding National Programs. The paper focuses on comparison of existing potential for energy production from feasible renewable energy sources, trends of bio-energy production and the role of renewable energy sources for the future energy needs in the Baltic States. Due to existence of some limiting factors additional energy policy measures encouraging future development of bio-energy production in the region are necessary.     

A comparative multi-disciplinary policy review in wind energy developments in Europe

Over recent decades, European Union countries have committed to increasing their electricity production from renewable energy sources (RESs). Wind energy plays a significant role in a sustainable future. This paper presents a political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental analysis. Although these countries have made many improvements in their legal frameworks aiming to attract investors and boost the RE sector, there are still challenges. The UK focuses on offshore wind energy, adjusts the economic strategy and changes the legislation context. Germany has the healthiest economic conditions, as it keeps following its initiative to design a new programme for an energy transition from conventional to RESs with emphasis on the onshore. Greece has only a few installations and much room for development but needs to make further changes in the legislation and economy so as to attract more investors in the long term. The purpose of this research is to analyse, highlight and discuss vital aspects of these countries as well as the European environment, with reference to their current wind energy activities. Ultimately, it attempts to give a wider perspective and to serve as a guide for future studies on the wind energy sector.     

Promoting regional energy co-operation in South Asia

Energy is a key ingredient of the socio-economic development of any region. South Asia is not only one of the fastest growing regions in the world; it is also one of the poorest, which thus puts energy at the very heart of the development process in the region. This paper looks at the challenges faced by the South Asia sub-region for economic co-operation (SASEC) comprised of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal, and also at the role of greater regional energy co-operation therein. The region is characterized by pressures of growing economies and increasing population. While the per capita energy consumption is one of the lowest in the world, energy intensity continues to be very high. A large portion of the population lacks access to modern sources of energy and depends on traditional sources that are not only inefficient but also have severe health and environmental problems associated with them. Increasing oil import dependency and huge investment needs for energy market development pose a further challenge. The region has a good resource potential and tremendous scope for energy co-operation, which can play a key role in addressing many of these energy security concerns and in putting it on the path of sustainable development. It is ironic that the record in the area has been so limited and that too in the most basic form of co-operation, i.e. bilateral arrangements between countries. This paper puts forth a multi-pronged strategy for sub-regional energy co-operation encompassing softer options aimed at confidence building to more substantial and larger scale co-operation efforts. Delays in decision making to ensure stronger and mutually beneficial co-operation efforts are associated with high costs not only to the energy sector but also for the entire development agenda. With the precarious energy situation in the region and unprecedented increases in international oil prices seen in recent times, it is high time for policy makers, financing institutions, NGOs and the civil society to push for a greater integration of the SASEC energy sector.     

Potential energy savings and environmental impact by implementing energy efficiency standard for household refrigerators in China

With the rapid economic growth and improvement in standard of living, Chinese people are employing more and more household appliances to make their living convenient and comfortable, of which refrigerators are indispensable. Because refrigerators operate continuously irrespective of seasons and regions, the total electricity consumption of refrigerators is huge and consequently causes severe energy-related environmental issues. China has been paying more and more attention to this and issued a national energy efficiency standard, GB12021.2-2003, for refrigerators. This paper first describes the standard briefly. Then it develops a mathematic model to evaluate the potential energy savings and environmental impacts of the standard. The estimated results indicate implementing the standard will save large energy, as well as benefit greatly to environment. Thus, it is very necessary to implement energy efficiency standard for refrigerators in China.     

七国集团与金砖四国能源结构变化特征及启示

七国集团和金砖四国在全球经济、政治和能源领域有着重要地位。本文分析了这些主要国家的一次能源生产和消费结构、终端能源消费结构、使用结构(按行业)、发电能源结构等的变化特征。资源禀赋、国际贸易的发展、技术进步、发展阶段等因素对各类能源结构的变化有着不同程度的影响或制约。环境恶化和全球气候变暖加快了低碳清洁能源的发展进程。