The contribution of sustainable bioenergy to renewable electricity generation in Turkey: Evidence based policy from an integrated energy and agriculture approach

Abstract

Turkey relies heavily on imported fossil fuels to meet a significant portion of its domestic energy demand. This has resulted in a rapid increase in the country's Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions over the past decade and raised questions about energy security. To address these challenges, Turkey has established several renewable energy targets, including a target to produce 30 percent of domestic electricity from renewable resources, such as wind, solar and biomass, by 2023. The biomass component is set to reach 1000 MWe by 2023. Given Turkey's large agriculture sector, this paper examines whether agricultural residues can play a role in meeting the biomass component of the renewable electricity target. The analysis is carried out at provincial level, using country-specific data and inputs from national experts and focuses on the crop and livestock bioenergy chains. The assessment results illustrate the bioenergy potential at provincial level, and consequently identify which bioenergy supply chains could be most feasible by province. The paper also quantifies the degree to which the selected bioenergy supply chains can contribute to achieving the biomass component of the renewable electricity target.