Caspian Report - Issue: 08 - Fall 2014

ARZU YORKAN
124
TURKEY HAS NOT YET TAKEN SUFFICIENT ACTION
ON RENEWABLE RESOURCES TO GENERATE A
VIABLE ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SUPPLY.
ternal action should also play a key
role, especially in terms of advancing
research and development in the
field of more environmental-friendly
technologies – for more power generation
from the renewables sources,
for more energy efficiency, and for
cleaner production from fossil fuels
like coal, etc. Accordingly, Turkey
must build strong domestic cooperation
among its industry, government
and scientific institutions. The
other remedy is a policy whereby
Turkey avoids signing long-term gas
agreements (i.e. for twenty or more
years). On the other hand, this raises
another question: ‘How we can
guarantee the flow of gas in today’s
international context, with the numerous
geopolitical and economic
conflicts in the gas trade’ A better
alternative could be to encourage
domestic and foreign investors
to construct green power stations
in order to reduce the share of gas
within the total power generation
and the heating sector, which would
in turn mean better supply security
and a more climate-friendly energy
mix for Turkey.
The issue of the country’s major potential
as a gas transit country between
the east and west is of course
another important matter for domestic
policy. But for its domestic
consumption, Turkey is heavily dependent
on gas, and more than half
of its supply comes from a single
country, Russia. Thus Turkey faces a
significant challenge in terms of the
security of its gas supply. The country
can at least limit reliance on gas
by gradually reducing its share within
its total power generation.
CONCLUSION
Turkey has substantial capacity in
terms of its renewable energy resources
– hydropower, wind, solar,
geothermal and biomasses. It has
already taken action to increase the
share of these sources in its energy
supply mix in order to first of all
reduce its dependence on external
fossil fuels, and secondly to develop
a more sustainable energy future
energy policy. The Turkish energy
sector is growing rapidly, currently
experiencing the second largest
demand growth in the world after
China, and a well-established energy
policy for its renewable sector
will help the country to enhance its
supply security and boost its economic
growth. Under the ‘green
economy’ motto, technological innovations
and more green energy
production will mean not only alternative
energy supplies but also new
jobs. The government’s 2023 green
energy goals, the struggles to put
them into action, and the country’s
newly emergent cooperation with
the more-industrialised renewable
countries together demonstrate that
Turkey is highly ambitious, and determined
to reach these targets.