Turkish minister reacts aganist court decisions, environmentalists

Stays of execution and annulment decisions by Turkish courts cause slowdowns in hydroelectric power plant and wind energy investments, according to Energy Minister Taner Yıldız.The Turkish government aims to evaluate all the energy resources, by giving priority to domestic and renewable energy resources, Yıldız said, speaking to the Anatolia news agency. “The important point is to form a mixture of energy generation that will provide an optimum price.”“We currently observe a slowdown in hydro investments due to reactions from environmentalists and stays of execution and annulment decisions of courts,” Yıldız said. “These developments also affect investors. They say there are problems in hydroelectric and wind in addition to problems in domestic coal. There is no resource left, the sole resource then is natural gas,” he said.Noting that he always calls on related ministries and non-governmental organizations, Yıldız said: “We always propose to sit around a table and discuss the technical part of the issue. We say let’s look at the red points that are not available for renewable energy investments, including cultural and natural properties, and then pick others.”Turkey still cannot agree on from which resource it should generate its electricity need, Yıldız said. “One institution says that you built hydroelectric power plant and damage the nature. Yes, there are some bad examples, I do not object to them. We should definitely be sensitive to the environment. But others say do not build a wind farm, because it damages the radar. Do not use nuclear and coal either, they damage nature, too.”Recalling the government’s targets for the Republic’s 100th anniversary of foundation in 2023, Yıldız said within this scope Turkey’s economy would gain its full potential from hydro energy by then. The capacity of wind energy is striving for 20,000 megawatts, and the target is 600 megawatts in geothermal energy, he said. “At least 10 percent of the energy of the country is expected to be met by nuclear energy.”The installed capacity for hydroelectric energy, which was nearly 12,000 megawatts in 2003, reached around 16,000 megawatts by the end of last year, he said, adding that this figure for wind farms increased to 280 megawatts from 17 megawatts. “These figures are insufficient. Still, we have done a lot and we will continue to do more.” Two nuclear power plants planned to be established, one in the northern province of Sinop and other in the southern province of Mersin, will meet 10 percent of the electricity installed power and 20 percent of electricity consumption, Yıldız said.