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Turkey currently meets almost half of its energy<br />
needs from local sources, Undersecretary<br />
of the Ministry of Energy and Natural<br />
Resources Fatih Dönmez has said.<br />
Dönmez said that Turkey is placing huge importance<br />
on local sources of energy so as to reduce its traditional<br />
dependence on imports. “We want to meet two-thirds of<br />
the country’s energy needs from local sources by 2023,”<br />
he said, adding that the ministry held two major tenders<br />
for solar and wind power plants last year.<br />
He pointed out that Turkey set up the highest number<br />
of solar power plants in Europe in 2017. “We are third<br />
Europe in wind power. This shows there is still a lot of opportunity<br />
in Turkey’s renewable energy sector,” he said.<br />
“Another important development was the arrival of global<br />
renewable energy giants in Turkey. Many of them have<br />
already set up production, research and development facilities<br />
here.”<br />
Dönmez said that Turkey generated 4,000 megawatts<br />
(MW) of solar energy as of 2017 and was planning to add<br />
another 1,000 megawatts by the end of this year. It is also<br />
planning to set up wind farms with an installed capacity of<br />
600 megawatts.<br />
He said that there is a huge difference between a<br />
1,000-megawatt wind farm and a gas-fired power plant<br />
with similar output. “We prefer renewables because there<br />
is no emission, it’s clean and we can depend on completely<br />
domestic natural resources.”<br />
“We spend a considerable amount on energy import. Our<br />
aim is to reduce that number. At present, approximately<br />
half of Turkey’s energy output comes from local sources<br />
and we want to raise it to two-thirds by 2023,” Dönmez<br />
added.<br />
“Our policies on renewables and domestic coal have been<br />
determined to serve this purpose. We are attaching great<br />
importance to domestic resources in order to reduce external<br />
dependence for energy,” he said. Dönmez also<br />
revealed that the energy ministry last week launched an<br />
afforestation campaign, which will plant one sapling for<br />
each natural gas, electricity subscriber and new car owner.<br />
“The campaign will be supported by the different energy<br />
sector companies. We will plant 5 million saplings in total,”<br />
Dönmez said.<br />
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