Turkey should switch to renewables, expert says

As one of the strongest economies in the region Turkey should not rely on nuclear and fossil fuels such as oil and gas, which is the biggest import item of the country, but rather focus on renewable energy sources, according to a top executive of the local branch of a European renewable energy association.

“Nuclear is no more a solution for meeting energy demand in a sustainable way,” Tanay Sıdkı Uyar, president of the Turkish branch of the European Association for Renewable Energy, or EUROSOLAR, told the Daily News on Tuesday in a phone interview. Turkey should abandon plans to build fossil fuel and nuclear power plants, he added.

Turkey currently plans to build 16,000 megawatts worth of fossil fuel power plants in addition to three nuclear power stations. Uyar said, however, the country should no longer continue to adopt the technologies that developed nations have already abandoned.

“Despite the general belief, renewable energy sources are much more affordable for Turkey,” said Uyar, noting that “internalizing external costs” of nuclear energy and fossil fuels is way higher than renewables. According to him, if Turkey starts on the nuclear adventure, the importance of renewable energy would never be fully understood.

Uyar also said Turkey has the potential to switch to renewable energy sources and could use them to meet 100 percent of the country’s energy demand by 2020.

Turkey currently imports 75 percent of its energy, which is equivalent to 99 million tons of oil annually, and is expected to need 218 million tons of oil by 2020, according to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, or TÜBITAK.

Focusing on renewable resources is crucial for the country’s EU candidacy, as the bloc is considering a tax based on carbon emissions to reduce fossil fuel consumption.

Import deals

“Turkey has import deals for gas and oil that require the country to pay for them whether they are fully consumed or not,” Uyar said, adding that the country should make a decision about the renewable energy sources as soon as possible. Emphasizing that Europe and the U.S. had started working on renewable resources in the 1980s, Uyar said, “Turkey is already late, but we should start supporting renewable energy in order to lessen dependency on Iran and Russia.”

Turkey also is preparing to host the International 100% Renewable Energy Conferences, or IRENEC, on Oct. 6-8 this year in Istanbul to pursue improvements in the energy efficiency and renewable energies. Internalization of external costs, wind turbine technologies, solar power and zero-energy buildings are among the topics to be discussed during the conference.

The government introduced a new incentive for renewable energy last year: a feed-in tariff for solar power of $0.133 per kilowatt-hour. This is under 10 eurocents per kilowatt and less than the 45.7 and 33 eurocents Germany and Spain pay respectively. “This cannot be called a feed-in tariff at all,” Uyar said.

Private companies’ applications to the Energy Market Regulatory Authority, or EMRA, have reached 802 since 2007 and are still pending approval. Hasan Köktaş, head of the EMRA, said Monday Turkey’s electricity generation from wind plants would exceed 1,600 MW and that investments in wind power would reach to 1.6 billion euros by the end of this year, Anatolia news agency reported.

/Hurriyet Daily News/