Turkish politics hindering renewable energy, group says

Barriers to implementing the complete usage of renewable energy are political rather than technical or economic, according to the final conclusions of the International 100% Renewable Energy Conferences and Exhibitions (IRENEC), which was held in Istanbul Oct. 6-8.“Political resistance and interest groups prevent [the 100 percent use of renewable energy],” IRENEC wrote in a press statement yesterday.Transition to a decentralized energy system is highly hindered by the existing energy production system, which is highly centralized, according to the statement. Each building could have its own solar energy production, each forest area could have biomass energy and each windy region could have its own wind energy production point instead, it said.About 200 representatives from universities, research institutions, energy technology and industries manufacturing, investors, managers, urban planners and architects from 30 countries participated in the conference.Examples from Germany, Austria and Denmark presented at the conference showed how proper incentives and policies could make 100 percent renewable energy for whole cities or provinces. Political will and decisiveness in these countries has encouraged renewables, the statement said.

October/17/2011

Turkey, potent in geothermal

Turkey could save up to $400 million annually if it fully uses its potential in the geothermal energy sector. Turkey could save up to $400 million annually if it fully uses its potential in the geothermal energy sector, according to the Energy Ministry’s vice general director for metals exploration, Hayrullah Dağıstan.Speaking at the Energy and Environment Sector Board’s consultative meeting Sunday in the eastern province of Van, Dağıstan said Turkey could gain a $10 billion net income in the medium term and employ some 300,000 people if it fully and efficiently utilizes its potential in the geothermal energy sector.

Turkish village opts for wind energy

A Turkish village in the northwestern province of Bursa has begun producing its own electricity after the state power company ended service due to the village’s unpaid electricity bill.Akbıyık village in Yenişehir found an alternative way of generating its own electricity after the Turkish Electricity Distribution Company (TEDAŞ) cut the electricity of the villagers who could not pay their bills, which totaled 33,000 Turkish Liras, 1.5 years ago, Doğan news agency (DHA) reported Sunday. The villagers, after conducting research about alternative sources of energy, proposed a windmill project to the Bursa Provincial Administration nearly a year ago. After the project was approved for nearly 160,000 liras, the village started to produce approximately 50 kilowatt-hours of electricity and was able to pump water to homes.Kemal Demirel, secretary general of the provincial administration, said windmills in Turkey were run by private companies, but this particular windmill belonged to the villagers, according to DHA. The project was completely funded by the administration. “They have no electricity expense at the moment,” said Demirel, adding that the same project would be implemented in other Bursa villages in the future.“We already paid our debt to TEDAŞ, and now without needing any other company, we are generating our electricity freely,” said Mustafa Çiçek, the village’s headman. Hydrogen island in the westMeanwhile, the International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies (ICHET), a United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) project, launched one of its global pilot projects on the Aegean island of Bozcaada, with the plant beginning generation yesterday. The pilot plant has photovoltaic panels of 20 kwh and a 30 kwh windmill to provide electricity to 20 houses on the island.“Generating energy from hydrogen will be a model for many other cities to find alternative and clean energy models,” ICHET-UNIDO Turkey General Director Mustafa Hatipoğlu said at the opening ceremony held in Bozcaada.

Vestas competes with rivals for Turkey wind power sales

Vestas Wind Systems, the world’s largest wind-turbine maker, will compete with Enercon and Nordex for market share in Turkey as the government awards more wind-power licenses, according to a company managing director.“Vestas is the biggest wind turbine supplier in Turkey with about 30 percent market share,” Mehmet Ali Neyzi, a managing director in charge of Turkey and the Middle East for Danish-based Vestas. “Now that the government has paved the way for new licenses, after a suspension period, competition has started to increase, and we want to keep our market share, though some minor fall is possible.”A new law guarantees the government will purchase wind and hydro power for 7.3 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour, and there are additional incentives planned for using locally made equipment, potentially adding 0.4 cents to 2.4 cents to the guaranteed price for five years. This is attracting investment after three years of lull, Neyzi said. Purchase prices for wind power in Europe are about 13.15 U.S. cents.Turkey, which has 50,475 megawatts of total power capacity including 1,406 megawatts from wind, received wind-power license applications for about 80,000 megawatts in 2007. The Turkish Electricity Transmission Company, or TEİAŞ, started auctions in February to award licenses for 8,000 megawatts of wind power and has awarded licenses for about half that total, according to the utility’s website. The government aims for 20,000 megawatts of wind power by 2020, about one-quarter of total capacity.Vestas is also competing with General Electric and Siemens to supply wind power equipment in Turkey, Neyzi said. Enercon and Nordex are its biggest rivals in the sector, he said.[HH] Striving to cut foreign dependenceTurkey wants to increase hydroelectric, wind and solar power to cut dependence on gas from Iran and Russia and meet increasing power demand, which Neyzi estimates is growing 6 percent to 8 percent annually.“We urgently need the secondary legislation to be passed” to provide the additional incentives for using locally produced wind-power equipment, Neyzi said.“Wind equipment prices fell about 20 percent from 2008 and this will help the government to reach its wind-power capacity target,” Neyzi said. Vestas is delivering orders within six to eight months, compared with about two years before the financial crisis hit global demand in 2008, he said.Vestas, which has manufacturing plants in Spain, Italy, Germany and Denmark, is studying options to build blades and nacelle casings in Turkey, Neyzi said. “Turkey can be a good manufacturing location with its logistics advantages and quality workforce,” he said.If Vestas builds its own blades in Turkey, it will do so through its wholly owned local unit, Neyzi said. Vestas has a Turkish subcontractor in western Bursa province, which builds turbine towers, he said.General Electric, or GE, which aims to expand its Turkish energy business, may revive a plan developed before the 2008 credit crisis to build wind turbines in Turkey, Mete Maltepe, the head of GE’s local energy units said in an interview in November.Vestas is working with Aksa Akrilik Kimya Sanayii, a Turkish maker of acrylic and carbon fibers, to procure carbon fibers for its wind turbine blades.

Interest in renewables rising, Frost says

The recovery of the global economy and rising oil prices are encouraging investors to turn to renewable energy, according to a recent report by Frost & Sullivan. With increasing attention on the development of renewables, Turkey is among the countries that will witness strong growth in this area, the researcher and consultancy firm said.According to Frost & Sullivan estimates, non-hydro renewables - wind , solar, biomass, geothermal and marine energy - are expected to more than double their global share from 3.6 percent in 2010 to 7.7 percent in 2020.“Turkey is highly dependent on natural gas imports for power generation,” said the report. “This is prompting greater investments in alternative generating options. The state is aiming to increase their share notably by 2023 in the energy mix.”Turkey‘s energy demand is expected to grow by 6-8 percent in the forthcoming years, the report said, emphasizing the key driver of growing interest in renewables.Investments in the solar market have lagged behind due to “lacking complementary regulations,” according to Frost. “The market will hopefully accelerate after the completion of the grid connection regulation that will define the procedures and the technical details of the connection of the solar systems to the grid,” said the report.For wind energy, Turkey’s installed capacity has reached 1,266 megawatts as of the end of 2010, Frost said. However, companies face a “long licensing period” with many procedural changes implemented through the applied projects, the consultancy said. Frost found the 2023 target to reach 20,000 MW in installed capacity “a quite optimistic goal” within the current bureaucratic framework.With a potential of 600 MW, Turkey ranks seventh in the world in geothermal energy. “After the passing of the latest law declaring the new feed-in tariffs among renewables in 2010, the industry promises a brighter future,” Frost said in the report.

Zorlu to build largest geothermal power station in Turkey

Zorlu Doğal Elektrik, a sister company of Turkish energy producer Zorlu Enerji, will construct the country’s largest geothermal power station in Kızıldere in the southwestern province of Denizli.Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation and Fuji Electric, both world-renowned companies, won the tender to build the power station, which will provide 60 megawatts of electrical power and 50 megawatts of thermal power capacity.On average 1 MW of power can supply electricity to as many as 300 U.S. households per year. According to TurkStat figures, the average person in Turkey consumes 540 kW of electricity in one year.“We have made an important step toward Turkey’s largest geothermal power station, which we aim to finish in 2013,” Arif Özozan, Zorlu’s general director, said in a statement.Through this new investment, the group aims to support new working areas, particularly in greenhouse business and thermal tourism. “We will give priority to both local employment and organic agriculture,” he said.Zorlu will soon possess a steam turbine with a capacity of 650 tons per hour that will be produced in Japan and delivered to the group in July. It will be installed at the Kızıldere geothermal power station that Zorlu Enerji took over in 2008.The company first did some rehabilitation works to increase the station’s capacity from 7 to 15 megawatts, according to Özozan. Drilling and exploration works then followed for about a year, after which Zorlu decided to invest in Turkey’s largest geothermal power station.

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.