US companies seek local energy accords

Turkey’s goal to become one of the world’s top 10 economies by 2023 may falter if it fails to invest enough in energy, a U.S. official said yesterday as he led a delegation of American businessmen looking for energy deals in Turkey.“Turkey has set a very ambitious aspiration to be a top 10 economy by 2023, the 100th anniversary of the modern Republic,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access and Compliance (MAC) Michael Camunez said in a speech at the Ankara Industry Chamber (ASO). “To achieve this goal, Turkey will have to triple the size of its economy, which will require significant foreign investment. Investments in the energy sector are one of the key factors for Turkey to achieve that goal.”He said Turkey would need $200 billion in foreign investment in order to draw 30 percent of its electricity supply from renewable sources in the next 12 years, in addition to using the best technology available worldwide.Camunez visited Ankara at the helm of a delegation made up of representatives of 16 leading U.S. companies in the renewable energy sector interested in investment partnerships in Turkey, as well as government officials from U.S. financing agencies. “It is a very special time in the relationship between the U.S. and Turkey,” he said. “Much credit is owed to our leaders, President Barack Obama, President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the vision and model they put forward of a strategic partnership between the two countries. Their vision was to ensure economic bilateral relations were as strong as the strategic and political relationships.”ASO chairman Nurettin Özdebir said Turkey’s urgent interest lay in renewable energy given global climate changes and the country’s above-average energy consumption. “We are in a region that will be affected the most from climate changes due to global warming. Anatolia is faced with the risk of desertification,” said Özdebir. He said Turkey was using 30 percent more energy compared to country average in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “In comparison, Japan uses one third of the energy we use,” he said. “As the need for energy rises, the price of energy will also rise, while having a negative effect on the climate.”The companies whose representatives attended the meeting included General Electric, Abound Solar, WorldBusiness Capital Inc. and Dow Energy of the United States, as well as Nurol, Güriş, Yüksel Enerji, GAMA, OSTİM and Aksu Mining of Turkey.

Why don't we like solar energy?

Tunç Korun is the second generation boss of Form Group (Form Şirketler Grubu), which has specialized in productive use of energy since 1965.His group created a cooling system for hotels using seawater. He also focuses on heating homes using a system installed underground and, more recently, producing solar powered electricity.Korun has dedicated much of his energy to produce his own electricity by installing solar panels of 2 kwh to the roof of his own house. He is very right to do so in a country like Turkey where there is plenty of sunshine. However, the data he submits demonstrates how far behind Turkey is in this field.Germany, which does not even have one tenth of our sun, is the world leader in solar energy, having installed an 18,000 megawatt capacity. The runners-up include Spain, Japan, the U.S., Italy, China and France. As of the end of 2010, installed solar energy capacity in the world has reached 35,730 megawatts.According to International Energy Agency calculations, by 2020, solar energy capacity will be up to 390,000 megawatts.Looking at Turkey we see that installed power capacity is only 3 megawatts.In short, we have seriously missed a free energy source that nature has awarded us with only “one in 10,000” of the world’s installed power.In a conversation with Korun two and a half years ago, he said that the newly appointed Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız was enthusiastic about “renewable energy including solar power.”Today, Korun is pessimistic about the policy the energy minister has adopted. “Yıldız has pushed aside renewable energy. One or two companies like us that defend solar energy were full of hope for two years but not now. We were saying that Turkey was dependent on foreign natural gas and now, dependency on nuclear energy is increasing. The resources we have in hand are being ignored,” he said.Compared to two years ago, the cost of producing electricity from the sun has decreased to 2,000 euros per kwh from 5,000 euros. This is good news.The bad news is the incentive payments the state grants for electricity production from the sun. According to Korun, this is a “negative incentive” because the $0.13 incentive per kwh the state has declared past January is below the present grid price. Consequently, it is obvious Ankara has a dim view on solar energy.At a time when governments focus more on “low carbon” economies and opt for all kinds of renewable energy, Turkey can take small steps forward only with the efforts of the private sector.The photovoltaic panel system that produces electricity from the sun developed by the Form Group has been installed in some buildings of major companies such as Arçelik, Migros, Özdilek, Toyota and Perfetti. Demand for the photovoltaic panel system is gradually increasing, Korun said, and companies favor this system because of prestige of obtaining a “green building” certificate.I have not quite heard that public buildings have had solar energy systems installed despite the fact that they should be the ones pioneering in this field.I wonder if Turkey’s Housing and Development Administration ever considers solar energy when it launches major projects within the context of “urban transformation” due to the risk of earthquakes.

Ukraine delegation invites Turkish companies for mega projects

Ukraine is calling on leading Turkish firms to take a share in the country’s giant projects, ranging from energy to construction initiatives worth approximately $15 billion, the top executive of a Turkish business council said yesterday.Turkish firms have been invited to collaborate on these projects as Turkey has already proved its capacity through its investments in Ukraine, according to Ruşen Çetin, chairman of Turkish-Ukrainian Business Council of Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK).The many energy, infrastructure and construction projects designed by Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych are likely to attract Turkish firms to form consortiums.The Ukrainian president will visit Turkey on Dec. 22 to meet Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchange (TOBB) and leading Turkish firms to finalize some of the projects, Çetin added.“Ukraine plans to construct a liquefied natural gas [LNG] terminal in one of the Black Sea ports of Ukraine in order to receive, store and re-gasify liquid natural gas,” said Vladyslav Kaskiv, head of the Ukrainian State Agency for Investment and National Projects of Ukraine (SAINPU) while also noting the possibility of delivering the gas to Ukrainian and European consumers.The project envisages the construction of a LNG terminal with a total capacity of 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. The country aims to attract $9.5 million investment in biomass energy in the Kyiv region.There are also separate plans for businesses from the two countries to work together on sport facilities build in preparation for the Ukrainian Winter Olympic Games bid in 2022. The project, named “Olympic Hope 2020,” would take place in the valley of Borzhava, in the southern Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains. Residence blocks, hotels and winter sport facilities would be built on a plot of nearly 350,000 square meters of land.In addition, the Ukrainian “Clean City” project envisages the construction of 10 centers with a total capacity for household waste of up to 2 million tons per year, as well as the realization of the “Open World” initiative, which is designed to develop broadband network access for nearly 20,000 schools across Ukraine.Ukraine is also planning to spend 40 million euros on the construction of a 10-megawatt solar power plant and 150 million euros on the construction of a 100-megawatt wind farm. 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.“Turkish construction firms have nearly $20 billion in contracts in nearly 90 countries,” said Selçuk Tayfun, deputy secretary general of Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, noting that the Ukrainian construction projects of Turkish firms were worth $3.7 billion

November/22/2011

GE, Metcap invest in energy facilities

General Electric and Turkey’s Metcap have agreed to jointly build a natural gas-fired power plant in the northwestern province of Kırklareli, as well as a hybrid power plant based on natural gas, solar and wind power in the Central Anatolian province of Karaman.The Eurostar project to be built in the small village of Erikleryurdu in Kırklareli with a capacity of 878 megawatts will help generate power for Istanbul, supporting Turkey’s efforts to modernize its aging energy infrastructure and meet growing electricity requirements, said Kerem Metin, a deputy chairman in Metcap.“The capacity is slated to be increased in the future and connected to Istanbul grids and Bulgarian and Greek grids,” he said during a press meeting in Istanbul on Nov. 18. The Eurostar plant will consist of nine gas turbines, one stream turbine and one heat recovery stream generation unit.“Dervish,” the other joint project, will initially have a capacity of 570 megawatts, which is scheduled to be increased to up to 1.08 gigawatts in the future. The project will enable the power grid to efficiently utilize wind, solar and natural gas based electricity generation, said Celal Metin, Metcap’s chairman. Dervish will be completed in 2015, according to officials.“Turkey’s dependence on foreign energy comes second after China,” Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said during a meeting.The country’s energy needs will be doubled in 10 years’ time, he said.“We have to meet the demand and reduce our dependence on energy imports,” he said, noting that renewable energy sources had the potential to play an important role on that issue.

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.