Renewable Energy Turkey

Energy is one of Turkey's most important development priorities. Turkey also has a large potential for renewable energies. The most important renewable sources for Turkey's energy sector are solar in its various forms, wind, biomass, hydro and geothermal. Turkey's geographic location has several advantages for extensive use of most of the renewable energy sources. The amount of annual biomass potential of Turkey is approximately 32 mtoe. Turkey has a gross annual hydro potential of 433,000 GWh, which is almost 1% of world total potential. Currently, wind power capacity in Turkey is around 19 MW, with units located all over the country. Turkey's solar energy potential has estimated to be 26.4 million toes as thermal and 8.8 million toes as electricity and geothermal potential is about 38,000 MW.

Turkey has a large economy and, thus, it expects a very large growth in energy demand. Today, Turkey's economy is mainly dependent on oil, natural gas, and electricity. On the other hand, Turkey's energy production meets nearly 35% of its total primary energy consumption. Turkey is an energy importing country. Turkey presently has considerable renewable energy sources. The most important renewable sources are hydropower, wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass. Turkey has about 1% of the total world hydroelectric potential and its significant potential for geothermal power production is ranked seventh in the world. This paper presents the energy situation and potential of the renewable energy sources in Turkey.

The approval of the new renewable energy law by the Turkish National Assembly follows the example of the leading renewable energy countries in Europe like Germany, Spain and ­ in the past ­ Denmark. In the past years the majority of the European countries have adopted similar legislation which is based on the success principles and should also serve as the basis for a future, EU-wide framework for renewable energy to be decided in the coming years. The Turkish Parliament took its decision almost one year after the Parliament Committee for Industry, Energy, Natural Resources, Information and Technology had approved a first draft Law on Utilisation of Renewable Energy Resources for Electricity Production.

The new renewable energy law will support mainly wind power by setting up a purchase guarantee of the average whole-selling electricity price (some 5 ct/kWh) for a period of 7 years for electricity generated from renewable energies. This tariff is much below the average remuneration in the leading European wind markets.

Grid operators will be obliged in principle to provide access to the grid for renewable energy generators. An important aspect is that in principle also independent power producers can benefit from the feed-in tariff which can make it easier for local and rural population and enterprises to benefit from the new legislation and to create a broad basis for an emerging Turkish renewable energy industry.

Turkey is one of the windiest and sunniest places in Europe and can reduce its dependence on fossil fuels very quickly when utilising its domestic renewable potentials ­ even more quickly than other European countries and at very low costs, much lower than when continuing the fossil or nuclear approach. Wind energy is already in use in many parts of the world at a price competitive with conventional technologies. The latest technologies can produce electricity at 4.4 c/kWh, comparable to many conventional sources. In Turkey, wind energy has great potential. Figures from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) show that Turkey theoretically has 160 TerraWatt hours a year of wind potential, which is equivalent to twice the country's electricity production in 1996.

For more information regarding potential investment opportunities in the Turkish energy market, a law firm should be consulted.