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Renewable energy sources in Turkey - Yasin Uzun -
The Republic of Turkey, with its significant geostrategic importance at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, is not only a major regional power; it also aims at taking its place among the top 10 biggest economies by 2023 -- the 100th anniversary of the republic. However, the ambitious growth comes at a cost: Turkey's rising demand for energy has become one of the highest on the planet over the last few years.
As evident in BP's world energy statistics 2011 report, the increase in demand for energy in Turkey exceeds the average figure for other countries as the demand for energy rose by 9.4 percent in 2010. Large investments are required in generation, transmission and distribution facilities to feed the power system's soaring needs.
Turkey's oil and natural gas requirements are significantly larger compared to its resources and production. The republic imports more than 75 percent of its energy, primarily from Russia and Iran, and Turkey's dependency rate on oil imports is 92 percent, while the natural gas dependency rate is 98 percent.
Consequently, Turkey has become one of the forerunners in generating renewable energy in recent years and investment in the sector is growing massively as it has become clear that this is a sector with enormous growth potential. The government's support adds a sense of safety to potential investments. The geographical conditions in Turkey and its climate are excellent for generating wind, solar and geothermal power. Accordingly, Turkey has started a major renewable energy and energy efficiency program. The country aims to increase its clean energy share to 30 percent of its power supply by 2023. The instruments to reach this goal range from the “Law of the Turkish Policies on Renewable Energies‟ to the political and financial support of research and development of renewable energy sources. With over $40 billion in investment expected in this area, foreign and local investors will see major business development opportunities in solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and all elements of energy efficiency. Turkey has an ideal climate for wind and solar energy investments, with an average of more than seven hours of sunshine a day and bordering the Mediterranean, the Aegean and the Black Sea.
As announced in 2009, the World Bank is to provide an additional $500 million to help fund the private sector renewable energy and energy efficiency project “Private Sector Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Project” in Turkey (until 2016). The funding -- which is guaranteed by the Republic of Turkey -- is to tap the country's significant renewable energy potential from hydro, wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and other resources. The additional funds complement an initial World Bank loan of $500 million and Clean Technology Fund financing of $100 million, which were approved on May 29, 2009, and came into effect on Aug. 12, 2009. The main goal of the Private Sector Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Project is to help increase privately owned and operated energy production from local renewable sources, and, as a result, to help improve energy efficiency and curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The project has already established a financial mechanism through Turkish banks that assist Turkish entrepreneurs in leveraging their capital to develop economically feasible renewable resources. The mechanism is expected to increase developments in the Turkish renewable energy sector.
Wind energy is the fastest growing energy source and technology in the world and wind power is one of the most widely used alternative sources of energy today. In most of the some countries wind power in share of gross electric consumption is continuously increasing. As an example, in Germany its share has reached to 6.4% in 2010. The west parts of Anatolia have been identified as very favorable locations for wind power generation in Turkey.
As for the background in Turkey, wind energy has always played an important role in the historical and economical development of Anatolia. The people used wind energy for hundreds of years for pumping water and grinding grain in Anatolia. Then, they must have been dominant landmarks already in the 14th century in Anatolia and the wind mills were built mainly in the 19th century. Recently, wind power as a potential renewable energy source has grown in Turkey.
The total installed wind power capacity in Turkey is approximately 2,000 MW (by 2012). Sum of the power values of the licensed projects exceeds 9,000 MW. The installed capacity of wind energy is expected to reach 20,000 MW by 2023. According to Turkish State Meteorological Service, the economic wind potential of Turkey is around 48,000 MW.
Solar radiation arriving on earth surface is the most fundamental renewable energy source. In recent years, solar energy utilization in various applications has increased significantly. Turkey is promising country for solar energy potential. Turkey’s geographical location is highly favorable for the utilization of solar energy. Turkey is geographically located (36-42°N latitudes) in a useful position for the solar power in the South Eastern of Europe and the Mediterranean. Solar radiation incident on a horizontal surface and sunshine duration are measured in the meteorological stations by Turkish State Meteorological Service (TSMS) in Turkey. The country has an average 3.6 kWh/m2-day irradiation and 7.2 hours insolation time per day In the southern parts of Turkey, there are about 3000 sunshine hours per year. The insolation values are higher and conditions for solar power generation are comparable to Spain. Southeastern Anatolia and Mediterranean regions of Turkey are in the highest levels with closing to 1500 kWh/m²-year. Solar energy is widely used in Turkey.
The main solar energy utilizations in Turkey are the flat-plate collectors in domestic hot water systems. The hot water heating system installations exceeds 10 million m2 area having with a total installed capacity of 7.8 GWh in 2008. Turkey is in the 2nd rank of the top countries using solar thermal power in worldwide following China, where this figure exceeds 100 GWh.
Utilization of solar power for electricity generation using photovoltaic systems is very limited with the usage of some governmental organizations in remote service areas such as telecom stations, forest fire observation towers and highway emergency only. However, it is hoping that the photovoltaic system will play an important role in the future energy planning in Turkey. The research and development of photovoltaic in Turkey is very new and not commercialized yet. The installed capacity of solar energy in Turkey is very small. However, by the amendment that has been made to “Law on Utilization of Renewable Energy Resources for the Purpose of Generating Electrical Energy” by the end of year 2010, so that a feed-in-tariff (FIT) of 13.3 $cent/kwh will be applied to solar generated electricity and 600 MW of solar power can be built up by year 2013. Based on this law, Energy Market Regulatory Authority prepared secondary legislation and declared that license applications for solar power will be collected in 2013 summer. It is expected that this FIT will promote usage of solar power for generating electricity in following years.
By the same amendment mentioned above, electricity generated from geothermal resources, BIOGAS and biomass are also taken under cover of FIT. Turkey also has a significant amount of geothermal resources. In fact Turkey is one of the top ten countries in the world in terms of geothermal potential and has the 5th direct usage of geothermal power among the world. But usage of geothermal in electricity is relatively low (114 MW by 2012). But a significant increase is expected for investments by the advantage of FIT.
Turkey has large amount of agricultural production, and therefore agricultural waste. It is also expected that this waste will be utilized for generating electricity, through BIOGAS, by FIT promotion. Considering the large amount of oil consumption and agricultural potential of Turkey, Energy Market Regulatory Authority has enacted a regulation (in 2011) that enforces the gas-oil distributor companies to gradually increase the amount of biomass to 3% (BIODIESEL and ethanol) produced from local agricultural crops to fuel that they sale in the country. By this regulation, oil dependency and carbon emission in the country is expected to decrease at some measure.
In the near future, significant demand renewable energy is expected to appear in Turkey. In this context the possible usage areas and rate effects of renewable energies replaced with fossil fuels to the economical benefit of the country can be examined. Interdisciplinary research and development and innovation studies will help Turkey to realize its renewable energy potential, and will also help with Turkey's vision of becoming an energy powerhouse of the region. We expect that Turkey will be one of the countries which will be one of the countries which will mostly benefit from environment-friendly renewable energy sources in near future.