Wind Energy: Potential, Policies and Status in Turkey
Abstract
The use of available renewable energy sources for a cleaner and greener energy production is crucial for a country like Turkey. For this reason, the Turkish government, within the scope of Vision 2023, aims to use renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, wave and geothermal in the most effective way. It aims to increase the share of renewable energy sources in electricity generation to 30% by the year 2023. In addition to Turkey having a great potential for wind energy, wind energy is the second most widely used, both actual and planned, energy source after hydro energy for electric generation all over the world. Turkey had been late for studies in the field of wind energy, but it has progressed rapidly. Nevertheless, the 2023 targets are very optimistic and is a serious goal. In order to achieve this goal, there are several requirements, such as identification of available potential, getting technological know-how, obtaining technical equipment, making policies and legal regulations, realizing domestic production and supplying finance as well as duly managing them as a whole. In this study, the wind energy of Turkey was analyzed in terms of historical background, available potential, politics and policies and sectoral development and the 2023 targets were evaluated.
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Introduction
The Oil Crisis in 1973 created a serious concern about energy security and caused intense public debate around new and renewable resources all over the world. Although the oil prices fell in the mid-1980s, the concept of "energy security", which arose in the aftermath of the oil crisis, did not come to an end and "energy diversification" has become one of the indispensable elements of energy politics.
Energy security and resource diversity have led renewable energy sources to be included in the energy sector. The emergence of environmental awareness in the 1990s was another event that supported the development of renewable energy sources. This awareness led to understand negative impacts which traditional energy production and consumption cause on the environment and natural resources at local, regional and global levels. Besides, renewable energy sources, which do not produce atmospheric pollutant emission, to be perceived as "clean energies" and be supported.
Turkey is surrounded on three sides by the sea and it has 7200 km coastline, as for the lands Turkey has numerous mountainvalley formations giving the country an average elevation of 1100m. This geolocation and landscape offers Turkey a substantial wind energy potential. So, along with any other renewable energy sources, wind energy has become prominent for its rich potential and its expected good yield. Electricity generation from wind energy is achieved at prices competitive with traditional generation methods in many parts of the world (Demirbas, 2006). Considering all the above, studies aiming to determine the opportunities and potential in wind energy sector have begun. Over the course of last decade sector has grown rapidly all over the world with regard to last technological improvements and with the aid of support mechanisms and new incentives. As a consequence, the share of wind energy in electricity production has continuously increased.
Conclusion
The major obstacles and handicaps in the path of achieving goals on utilization of wind energy and in the development of sector in Turkey is that there are still some political initiatives and actions to be taken along with getting know-how and industrial developments. Unfortunately having high potential or being rich in resources does not guarantee making use of the potential. Yet, neither do being determined and making regulations. There should be a good arrangement and concordance of all.
In order to meet the Vision 2023 target of 20,000 MW, Turkey needs to commission nearly 16,500 MW WPPs between 2016 and 2023. This requires the market growth rate to be maintained at the same rate it had in recent years, which is roughly around 25%. Considering that a proportional growth is not always possible after a point, as the nominal value of the percentage will rise to an unaffordable figure, we can say that an additional 2,000 MW capacity must be commissioned each year.
Whether the price is affordable and rational for Turkey is up to the Turkish government, bur just for the curious; the unit cost of initial investment for electricity generation from wind energy in developed countries varied from 1127 US$/kW to 1376 US$/kW in 2014 as reported by International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA, 2015). And this is apart from the operation and maintenance costs, which is around $105/kW based on experiences in Germany, Spain, the UK and Denmark. As a result, Turkey needs to invest approximately 2.5 billion US$ each year in order to meet its Vision 2023 wind energy targets.
Turkey has shown its ability and potency in accomplishing big projects and achieving hard-to-attain goals. As a conclusion, the Vision 2023 target on wind energy is hard to be met for a country at the scale of Turkey, but still theoretically possible both in terms of time and feasibility. However, Turkey may facilitate this task by implementing some subsidies, grants and incentives as well as encouraging local players for entering the market and pave the way for them.