Past,present and future status of electricity in Turkey and the share of energy sources

With a young and growing population, low per capita electricity consumption, rapid urbanization and—until recently—strong economic growth, Turkey for nearly two decades has been one of the fastest growing power markets in the world. Prior to Turkey's recent severe economic difficulties, Turkey's electricity consumption had been growing much faster than its production. It forces Turkey make a rapid action to supply electricity demand. Installed power generation capacity in Turkey reached about 31.84 GW in 2002. However, the growth in electricity generation has remained below the electricity demand, which made Turkey a net importer of electricity since, 1996. Projections show that Turkey's electricity consumption would continue over the next 15 years.     

A discussion on recent developments in Turkey's emerging solar power market

Market reform, energy security and environmental protection are three primary energy policy goals of Turkish government. Although Turkey's abundant solar energy resources can directly address the government's energy policy goals, Turkey has not utilized solar power yet. Utilization of country's huge solar energy potential would decrease dependence on imported fossil fuels and contribute to fulfill environmental commitments. However, lack of regulatory and financial support for the development of solar power has considerably delayed the utilization of country's huge solar potential. The government has taken only modest steps to promote investment in solar power until the end of 2010 when a new feed-in tariff policy was adapted. Turkey's solar energy potential, PV technology status and prospect for concentrating solar power in Turkey have been explored in a number of studies; yet literature dealing with recent policy developments, associated investment environment and opportunities for solar power investors are limited. The aim of this paper is to set out the latest legal framework for investment in Turkey's emerging solar power market and to provide some guidelines to potential investors who appreciated country's huge solar energy potential.     

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.     

Reforming the Energy Market and Utilization of Electrical Energy

The main objective of the present study is to provide an overview of reforming the Turkish energy market, including the electricity production and consumption values of Turkey and restructuring in the eight European Union countries. Turkey's electricity demand has been growing very rapidly. It has increased from about 47 TWh in 1990 to some 142 TWh in 2003, and it is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. Besides this, Turkey's total electricity capacity increased from 16,318 MW in 1990 to 31,846 MW in 2002. Restructuring of the electricity sector in the country has started with the establishment of the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) upon the law (no. 4628) that came into force on March 3, 2001. The Energy Market Regulatory Board, which runs the EMRA, was commissioned on November 19, 2001. In May 2002, the EMRA issued drafts of the Energy Market Licensing Regulation and the Electricity Market Tariffs Regulation, and these regulations went into effect in August 2002. The Electricity Market Implementation Manual was also issued by the EMRA in April 2003. At present, not only the electricity sector, but the whole Turkish energy sector is in a dynamic change.     

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.     

Foresight analysis of wind power in Turkey

The Turkish wind energy industry is one of the most competitive and fastest growing industries in the energy sector. Industrial energy demands, Kyoto agreement and carbon trade are shown as probable causes. Currently, Turkey has a total installed capacity of about 48.5 GW for electricity from all energy sources. High energy prices and unstable suppliers have stimulated Turkey's growing interest in wind business and wind power. This paper analyzes Turkey's wind energy future perspective and power generation strategy with a view to explaining Delphi approach to wind energy development. In this study, the two‐round Delphi survey was conducted by experts to determine and measure the expectations of the sector representatives through online surveys where a total of 70 experts responded from 24 different locations. The majority of the Delphi survey respondents were from 23 different universities (60%), electricity generation industries (21%), two different governmental organizations (11%), nongovernmental organizations (6%) and other institutions (2%). The article discusses not only the expert sights on wind energy technology but also all bibliometrical approaches. The results showed that Turkey's wind power installed capacity is expected to exceed 40 GW by the end of the 2020 s and in the middle of the 2030 s, and Turkey would be the European leading country in the field of electricity generation from the wind. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Current snapshot of the Turkish ESCO market

Turkey's Energy Efficiency Law (EEL), enacted in 2007, had been expected to transform the energy policies in government and private sectors, and offer opportunities for, then-impending, Turkish Energy Service Company (ESCO) market. Yet, the communiqué of the EEL related to ESCOs was released only recently in July 2012. In this work, we review the current status of the ESCO market in Turkey. We provide an outlook through the recent legal communiqué and present barriers, enabling factors, and opportunities, supported by country's financial and economic facts. ESCO-financing mechanism prevailing and the sources of financing in the country are also mentioned. The communiqué on ESCOs fits well in the chain of regulatory attempts to increase Turkey's competitiveness in the global markets. However, we anticipate that some of its principles and procedures to be enforced may be deterrent for small-scale candidate ESCOs and may slow down the expected development of the Turkish ESCO market. Otherwise, the communiqué should lead restructuring of a stronger ESCO market in Turkey.     

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.     

On the wind energy in Turkey

Increase in negative effects of fossil fuels on the environment has forced many countries, including Turkey, to use renewable energy sources. Today, clean, domestic and renewable energy is commonly accepted as the key for future life, not only for Turkey but also for the world. As wind energy is an alternative clean energy source compared to the fossil fuels that pollute the atmosphere, systems that convert wind energy to electricity have developed rapidly. Turkey is an energy importing country, more than half of the energy requirement has been supplied by imports. Turkey's domestic fossil fuel resources are extremely limited. In addition, Turkey's geographical location has several advantages for extensive use of wind power. In this context, renewable energy resources appear to be one of the most efficient and effective solutions for sustainable energy development and environmental pollution prevention in Turkey. Since wind 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 wind power in Turkey but also provides some guidelines for policy makers.     

Grey prediction with rolling mechanism for electricity demand forecasting of Turkey

The need for energy supply, especially for electricity, has been increasing in the last two decades in Turkey. In addition, owing to the uncertain economic structure of the country, electricity consumption has a chaotic and nonlinear trend. Hence, electricity configuration planning and estimation has been the most critical issue of active concern for Turkey. The Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MENR) has officially carried out energy planning studies using the Model of Analysis of the Energy Demand (MAED). In this paper, Grey prediction with rolling mechanism (GPRM) approach is proposed to predict the Turkey's total and industrial electricity consumption. GPRM approach is used because of high prediction accuracy, applicability in the case of limited data situations and requirement of little computational effort. Results show that proposed approach estimates more accurate results than the results of MAED, and have explicit advantages over extant studies. Future projections have also been done for total and industrial sector, respectively.     

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.     

The contribution of renewable resources in meeting Turkey's energy-related challenges

The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of renewable energy as a key way for resolving the Turkey's energy-related challenges. As a consequence of economic and social development, Turkey's energy consumption has risen dramatically over the past three decades. At present, fossil fuels account for more than 90% of the total energy consumption in the country. Turkey has no large oil and natural gas reserves and it import nearly all of these fossil fuels. Turkey's current energy mix is not likely to support development of sustainable energy. The energy mix shows a relatively small contribution from renewable energy sources in the country. They have the potential to make a large contribution to Turkey's sustainable and independent energy future. In particular they can help to reach the environmental goals of Turkey and to increase the security of energy supply by reducing the dependence on imported-fuel supplies.     

Turkey's natural gas necessity,consumption and future perspectives

Turkey is an important candidate to be the “energy corridor” in the transmission of the abundant oil and natural gas resources of the Middle East and Middle Asia countries to the Western market. Furthermore, Turkey is planning to increase its oil and gas pipeline infrastructure to accommodate its increased energy consumption. Naturally, Turkish natural gas usage is projected to increase remarkably in coming years, with the prime consumers, expected to be industry and power plants. Energy demand of Turkey is growing by 8% annually, one of the highest rates in the world. In addition, natural gas consumption is the fastest growing primary energy source in Turkey. Gas sales started at 0.5 bcm (billion cubic meters), in 1987 and reached approximately 22 bcm in 2003. This article deals with energy policies and natural gas consumption of Turkey. Besides modernization of present lines and realization of capacity increase, new lines will also be needed. In this context, Turkey, due to its geographical location is, in an important position to vary European supply. Therefore, Turkey's role as a transitory area gains importance.     

Energy consumption and economic growth in Turkey during the past two decades

The Turkish economy has undergone a transformation from agricultural to industrial, enhanced by rapid urbanization, especially after 1982. Turkey's gross national production has grown at an average annual rate of 5% since 1983, ranking it at the top of the OECD countries, although the growth pattern has been uneven. Economic growth in recent years has been associated with the privatization of public enterprises. Turkey's energy demand has risen rapidly as a result of social and economic development. The country's energy consumption has grown considerably since the beginning of the 1980s. The Turkish government encourages foreign and Turkish private sector investors to implement the energy projects and is currently working on a new investment model for the construction of new generation plants to create the additional capacity needed. The Turkish energy sector, with its current size of 30 billion US dollars and projected size of 55 billion US dollars by 2015, as well as the fundamental restructuring process it has been going through since 2001, attracts both local and foreign investors. The sector needs an investment amount of approximately 130 billion US dollars by 2020. The aim of the present paper is to investigate the increasing of Turkish energy demand with the growth of the economy and utilization of domestic energy sources and the case of investments and imports in Turkey during the past two decades.     

Views on Turkey's impending ESCO market: Is it promising?

Turkey's Energy Efficiency Law (EEL) came into force in May 2007. The EEL will transform energy policies implemented in the government and private sectors. The law and upcoming regulations will offer opportunities for the impending Energy Service Company (ESCO) market in Turkey. In this work, we briefly review the ESCO literature and its financing mechanisms in the world, and present our views with regard to the funding and related risks that are likely to be associated with the forthcoming Turkish ESCO market. These views are backed up with Turkish credit and banking market performance and the lessons learned from implementation of some EU-related projects involving the banking sector and small-and-medium-sized firms. We conclude that in order to create a promising competitive ESCO market, Turkey's policy must be to sustain its average 5% growth rate achieved lately for the coming decade, finish the structural reforms which will invite necessary capital inflows to ensure an economic stability and financing.     

Turkey’s short-term gross annual electricity demand forecast by fuzzy logic approach

This paper aims to forecast Turkey's short-term gross annual electricity demand by applying fuzzy logic methodology while general information on economical, political and electricity market conditions of the country is also given. Unlike most of the other forecast models about Turkey's electricity demand, which usually uses more than one parameter, gross domestic product (GDP) based on purchasing power parity was the only parameter used in the model. Proposed model made good predictions and captured the system dynamic behavior covering the years of 1970–2014. The model yielded average absolute relative errors of 3.9%. Furthermore, the model estimates a 4.5% decrease in electricity demand of Turkey in 2009 and the electricity demand growth rates are projected to be about 4% between 2010 and 2014. It is concluded that forecasting the Turkey's short-term gross electricity demand with the country's economic performance will provide more reliable projections. Forecasting the annual electricity consumption of a country could be made by any designer with the help of the fuzzy logic procedure described in this paper. The advantage of this model lies on the ability to mimic the human thinking and reasoning.     

The contribution of hydropower in meeting electric energy needs: The case of Turkey

In this article, an attempt is made to better understand the contribution of hydropower in meeting electric energy needs of Turkey. Thus, a comparison between Turkey and other countries, which have some similarities with Turkey or which are more developed nations compared to Turkey, for evaluating from different aspects the contribution of hydropower in meeting electric energy needs is performed. The producers of electricity and hydroelectricity in the world, and the electric sectors of all the selected countries are firstly examined. Thereafter, Turkey's water resources and its potential, hydropower potential, and current status of hydropower in Turkey are investigated in detail. A detailed discussion regarding economic and energy indicators, hydroelectricity versus thermal electricity, the contributions of hydroelectricity to the total and renewable electricity generation, and the usage status of hydro potential of each selected nation is also made. Finally, it is found that hydropower is the second largest contributor in meeting Turkey's electric energy needs after thermal, mainly natural gas. It is also estimated that the contribution of hydropower will continue because a vast amount of its economically feasible hydro potential (about 64%) is undeveloped. Besides, it is determined that the contribution of hydropower in the total electricity generation in Turkey is greater than that of China and India, but it is lower than that of Norway, Brazil, and Canada.     

Hydropower in Turkey for a clean and sustainable energy future

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. 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. By the commissioning of new hydropower plants, which are under construction, 36% of the economically usable potential of the country would be tapped. Turkey's total economically usable small hydropower potential is 3.75 GWh/year.     

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.     

Overcoming problems in Turkey's renewable energy policy: How can EU contribute?

Fossil fuels cover most of the energy demand in the world, and this creates significant social, economic and environmental problems. Many countries have taken measures to increase the share of renewable energy sources (RES), especially in electricity generation, and the review of literature shows that the success of a country in RES diffusion depends on a comprehensive renewable energy policy which combines political commitment with stable and long-term support measures that stimulate technological innovation. As the largest economy in the world, EU has also taken steps to increase RES usage in electricity generation in member states. Similar to other developing countries, Turkey is learning lessons from EU experiences regarding RES policies, and Turkey is also reforming its legal framework in line with acquis communautaire as a candidate country. As a result, EU has a multiway impact on Turkey's renewable energy policy. An overview of Turkey's renewable energy policy showed that EU has significantly contributed to Turkey in shaping its renewable energy policy, and Turkey should increase cooperation with EU in order to utilize its renewable energy potential.