Turkey's Energy Research Articles

Life Cycle Cost Analysis: An Evaluation of Renewable Heating Systems in Turkey

This paper presents a comparison of the LCC of five heating systems in four climate zones in Turkey. While being a country with huge renewable energy potential, Turkey's energy demand is met to a great extent by imported energy sources which constitute a substantial economic burden for Turkey. In this study, we analyzed the most common heating technologies, namely geothermal district heating systems (GDHS), natural gas-fired boilers, pellet-fired boilers, ground coupled heat pumps (GCHP) and coal-fired boiler technologies in terms of various criteria including life cycle cost (LCC), accessibility, initial investment cost, technical infrastructure, resource cost and annual heat cost. This study is vital to determine the shortcomings and strengths of the renewable heating (REH) technologies, both economically and technologically against non-REH technologies. The outcomes of the study may eventually assist home owners, property developers and policy makers in taking informed decisions in case of new construction or renovation, or proposing new policy mechanisms to promote the REH technologies. This study revealed that, due to the high labor intensity, inadequate supply chain of energy sources and structural constrains; REH technologies are not cost competitive against non-REH technologies in Turkey. Turkey is expected to revisit its medium-term energy policy to ensure wide application of REH technologies, introduce encouraging support mechanisms, and prioritize REH technologies on the basis of Turkey's resource mix and policy goals. If appropriate policies are in place and obstacles are eliminated, the potential of renewable energy can be exploited and market expansion of REH technologies can be realized.

An Economic Analysis of Residential PV System for Adiyaman, Turkey

Solar energy constitutes the main source of all energy sources and it is one of the most important renewable energy sources in terms of huge potential. As with other energy sources not just in certain places in the world, everywhere have the potential where the sun rises and set. Turkey is located on the sunny area and solar energy generation is quite rich in potential. Together with the substantial increase in the efficiency of photovoltaic cells, generating electricity from solar energy is becoming increasingly common. Especially in places where no grid connection, photovoltaic cells is very useful in supplying the energy needs. In this study, Turkey's solar energy potential was analyzed, and PV systems to meet the electricity needs of a home were analyzed economically. Consequently, to meet the electricity needs of a house in Adiyaman conditions that require a surface area of 24 m 2 with a PV system, and this system was determined to be able to amortize itself in 10 years.

Analysis on Meeting the Electric Energy Demand With Small Wind Turbine in Turkey

Wind energy is one of the most important renewable energy sources in terms of huge potential. Turkey has adequate wind energy potential to generate its own electricity. Together with the technological developments of wind turbine, generating electricity from wind energy is becoming increasingly common in Turkey and around the world. In this study, Turkey's wind energy potential and a small wind turbine to meet the electricity needs of a home were analysed economically. Installation height of the wind turbine is lower compared to other large turbine so wind speed can be slightly lower. Therefore smaller generator with larger wind turbine blade was scheduled to be assembled to meet the electricity needs for a house in Turkey. Cost of a system is about $ 6,576 and this system can pay for itself in 10 years.

New markets for renewable industries: Developing countries – Turkey, its potential and policies

For today’s world, energy is a huge requirement for economic, industrial and social life. The necessity of energy is increasing quite rapidly to keep pace with the technological and economical advancements and this brings about many energy problems like, dependence on energy importation, environmental pollution, global warming, increasing cost of energy expenses and inefficiency in energy use etc. Countries are working very hard to solve these problems. To supply the energy needs and protect our planet’s future safety, it is very important to generate clean energies. In this context, governments give huge amounts of incentives for renewable energy generations and support related investments in many countries. In this study, the importance of renewable energy usage, recent incentives, renewable energy policies in Turkey and some developed countries are investigated and compared. It is also aimed to examine the real situation of renewables in Turkey by giving the latest numbers and make a contribution of future developments for these clean energies in Turkey. In this regard, some barriers and recommendations are also submitted.

Assessment of renewable energy potential and policy in Turkey – Toward the acquisition period in European Union

Abstract This paper aims to assess the renewable energy capacity of Turkey in order to consider main priorities in the energy policy of Turkey. In this paper, renewable energy potential and regulatory conditions are discussed in Turkey in comparison with European Union. The results of the study implemented within the framework of EnviroGRIDS project indicated a promising yet very susceptible future for the implementation of renewable energy power plants in Turkey. The forecasts have shown that the solar power potential utilization is becoming more significant after 2020. The projections for 2050 indicate that electricity consumption from small and medium renewable energy sources including solar and wind will constitute 15% of the total, whereas the solar thermal will constitute around 16%. Geothermal and other renewables will remain around 3%. According to the high demand scenario, in 2050 the share of hydropower in overall electricity generation will be 12%, followed by solar power at 7% and wind power at 3%. Additionally, renewable energy policy and regulations in Turkey and in EU are overviewed in this study. On the contrary to EU, the constant feed-in tariff amount does not consider capital investments of specific energy sources in Turkey that brings disadvantage to the implementation. However, new regulations published and currently applied should be accepted as milestones in acquisition period of Turkey in EU.

Estimates of energy consumption in Turkey using neural networks with the teaching–learning-based optimization algorithm

The main objective of the present study was to apply the ANN (artificial neural network) model with the TLBO (teaching–learning-based optimization) algorithm to estimate energy consumption in Turkey. Gross domestic product, population, import, and export data were selected as independent variables in the model. Performances of the ANN–TLBO model and the classical back propagation-trained ANN model (ANN–BP (teaching–learning-based optimization) model) were compared by using various error criteria to evaluate the model accuracy. Errors of the training and testing datasets showed that the ANN–TLBO model better predicted the energy consumption compared to the ANN–BP model. After determining the best configuration for the ANN–TLBO model, the energy consumption values for Turkey were predicted under three scenarios. The forecasted results were compared between scenarios and with projections by the MENR (Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources). Compared to the MENR projections, all of the analyzed scenarios gave lower estimates of energy consumption and predicted that Turkey's energy consumption would vary between 142.7 and 158.0 Mtoe (million tons of oil equivalent) in 2020.

Choice of nuclear technology and legislative certainty for nuclear safety and liability in Turkey

This article assesses the legal and political nature of decision-making with regards to nuclear energy policy in Turkey. The main focus is on the choice of nuclear technology and the associated safety and liability issues for Turkey’s new nuclear development plans. The article highlights the importance of legal certainty for both safety and liability in the nuclear energy sector. In particular, the liability regime in case of a nuclear accident must be clear and transparent. It also concludes that it is not the environmental impact assessment, safety concerns or liability regime but politics that is the key determinant in the choice of nuclear technology for a new nuclear project. In addition, with the planned use of the new financial model of Build-Own-Operate, this results in legal certainty being even more important for new nuclear development in Turkey.

Role of Wind Power in the Energy Policy of Turkey

AbstractEnergy used to be produced mostly from fossil fuels until the near past, and the use of these fuels has created many environmental problems. For this reason, renewable energy resources have become important for energy production. As a result of technological developments in the field, electricity production using wind turbines with high capacities is possible in the current era. An increasing tendency to use renewable energy resources in the world has revealed a need to study the current position of wind energy in Turkey also and particularly the policies to increase the usage of wind energy. First, the current position of energy production and energy policy in Turkey is summarized and the details about installed wind power plants are presented. Second, the future projections about the energy power plants are discussed. The details about current and future wind power plants in Turkey are especially given. Incentives for wind power plant constructions are also presented in the study. As a result, i...

Turkey's Energy Future: A Quantitative Assessment

Turkey's Energy Future: A Quantitative Assessment

Turkey's energy efficiency assessment: White Certificates Systems and their applicability in Turkey

The last decade has seen an increase in the importance of energy efficiency and the sustainable use of energy resources due to their significant benefits for reducing a country's dependence on foreign energy resources and increasing awareness on environmental problems. Turkey aims to reduce its energy intensity by 20% up to 2023, and in order to accomplish this target, the country plans to use energy more effectively in various industries and develop financial mechanisms for energy efficiency. Although much effort has been made to improve energy efficiency, additional policies such as marked-based incentives are still necessary. This article deals with one of the many market-based energy efficiency policies, called Tradable White Certificates (WhC) or Energy Efficiency Obligations. The current situation of the energy field in Turkey and energy consumption by industries is presented first in this paper, followed by potentials for energy efficiency in each industry and energy efficiency policies. Furthermore, the theory and applicability of a WhC System is introduced and discussed in terms of market conditions, choice of obligated participants and market mechanisms and barriers for the Turkish electricity and natural gas market to benefit from the residential and industrial energy savings potential.

Investigation of hydroelectric energy potential of the Zab River Basin using geographic information systems and remote sensing methods

Turkey's energy need is increasing day by day. The required energy is mostly imported from foreign countries since it cannot be met by the country's own resources. However, Turkey has rich renewable water resources to produce energy. To fulfill the aim of closing this energy gap and using the country's water resources more efficiently, the hydropower potential of the Zab River Basin is investigated in this paper. The overall objective of the study is to evaluate the hydropower potential of the Zab River Basin using Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing methods, and utilize this potential for the economical development of the region and the country. Within the study, appropriate locations were determined for 12 dams in the basin; estimated costs and annual electric energy generation were calculated with the Simahpp Software. According to these calculations, the total cost, installed power capacity and the annual electric energy generation of the dams were found, respectively, as 838.753 × 106 US$, 580.928 MW and 1112.327 GWh.

An Evaluation of Turkey's Energy Dependency

Energy dependency (ED) is the energy import level upon which an economy relies in order to meet its energy needs. ED is calculated by dividing net imports by the sum of gross inland energy consumption plus bunkers. This study aims to obtain performance scores to evaluate of Turkey's ED based on basic energy indicators (Model 1), sectoral energy consumption (Model 2), and primary energy production as sources (Model 3) by using data envelopment analysis. The performance evaluation of 25 European Union member states, Norway, Switzerland, Croatia, and Turkey, a candidate country, was performed in order to draw up a good energy policy in the future for Turkey. Since the data on Malta and Cyprus were incomplete, these two nations were excluded from the evaluation. The data set covers the years between 1998 and 2006 and energy indicators used in the analysis were taken from Eurostat for all countries. The Results of the analysis show that Turkey's most important goal for the future is to produce proper energy policies in order to decrease ED.

A Future Projection of Turkey's Energy Intensity

Energy intensity is the main indicator which is used as a good measure of the energy efficiency of the economy. This study aims at obtaining numerical equations to estimate Turkey's energy intensity (EI) based on basic energy indicators by using an artificial neural network (ANN). For this purpose, main energy indicators such as total production of primary energy and total gross electricity generation were used to train the ANN approach. The EI was used in the output layer. The R 2 value of EI and average deviation were found to be 0.9998 and 0.0037%, respectively.

Current snapshot of the Turkish ESCO market

Turkey's Energy Efficiency Law (EEL), enacted in 2007, had been expected to transform the energy policies in government and private sectors, and offer opportunities for, then-impending, Turkish Energy Service Company (ESCO) market. Yet, the communiqué of the EEL related to ESCOs was released only recently in July 2012. In this work, we review the current status of the ESCO market in Turkey. We provide an outlook through the recent legal communiqué and present barriers, enabling factors, and opportunities, supported by country's financial and economic facts. ESCO-financing mechanism prevailing and the sources of financing in the country are also mentioned. The communiqué on ESCOs fits well in the chain of regulatory attempts to increase Turkey's competitiveness in the global markets. However, we anticipate that some of its principles and procedures to be enforced may be deterrent for small-scale candidate ESCOs and may slow down the expected development of the Turkish ESCO market. Otherwise, the communiqué should lead restructuring of a stronger ESCO market in Turkey.

Current status of wind energy and wind energy policy in Turkey

Over the past decades, the importance of renewable and sustainable energy resources has increased in the world due to both the rapid increase in energy demand and disadvantages of the fossil fuels. Many countries, such as Turkey, aim to increase the use of renewable and sustainable energy sources with different incentive mechanisms. In parallel with these incentive methods being implemented, wind energy capacity in Turkey has a remarkable increase in the growing rates of renewable energy sources according to installed wind power. Up to now, several wind power projects have been developed at different regions of Turkey.This paper aims to analyze the potential and development of wind energy systems in Turkey. Besides, the current usage and development of wind power installations have been explored for the World and Turkey in detail at the end of the 2011. Furthermore, this study also presents tax exemption, support, and incentive mechanisms to develop new wind energy investments in Turkey.

EVALUATION OF RENEWABLE ENERGY ALTERNATIVES USING MACBETH AND FUZZY AHP MULTICRITERIA METHODS: THE CASE OF TURKEY

Energy is a critical foundation for economic growth and social progress. It is estimated that 70% of the world energy consumption could be provided from renewable resources by the year 2050. Renewable energy is the inevitable choice for sustainable economic growth, for the harmonious coexistence of human and environment as well as for the sustainable development. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the renewable energy alternatives as a key way for resolving the Turkey's energy-related challenges because of the fact that Turkey's energy consumption has risen dramatically over the past three decades as a consequence of economic and social development. In order to realize this aim, we comparatively use MACBETH and AHP-based multicriteria methods for the evaluation of renewable energy alternatives under fuzziness. We use 4 main attributes and 15 sub-attributes in the evaluation. The potential renewable energy alternatives in Turkey are determined as Solar, Wind, Hydropower, and Geothermal.

A Comparative Study on the Energy Demand of Turkey: Coal or Natural Gas

Energy demand which has increased rapidly is estimated to increase also in the future. Coal and natural gas would continue to have primary role in electricity generation and industry. Turkey's energy consumption has been growing faster than its production. Natural gas is the greatest source in the energy consumption with a share of 32%. Lignite coal is major domestic energy source of Turkey and its reserves are 12.4 billion tons. Since most of the lignite reserves are low in quality, they are used mostly in electricity generation. On the other hand, Turkey has very limited natural gas reserves. Aim of this article is to evaluate the energy demand of Turkey based on hard coal, lignite and natural gas. As a result of the study it was determined that 70% of the primary energy consumption is met by imported energy sources. This figure shows that Turkey's dependency on foreign energy will continue to increase in following years in parallel with its economic growth. Turkey should increase the use of domestic sources, since foreign dependence of country can be minimized.

The Modeling of Turkey's Electrical Energy Consumption and Production Policy Relating to the Kyoto Protocol

This article addresses the problem of determining optimum distribution of future electrical energy supplies in Turkey under the impact of the Kyoto Protocol, which was ratified early in 2009. Improvement and proper choice of energy sources is a prerequisite to achieving lower carbon emission. Turkey's prime energy sources and carbon emission is given comparatively with France and Germany. It is shown that Turkey's electrical energy generation is largely due to thermal power plants, which require carbon capture and storage units to lower CO2 emissions in order to meet the Kyoto criteria. An electrical energy consumption model for the future is forecasted using exponential smoothing. Predicated on this model and applying penalty to large carbon emission sources, an optimal allocation of energy sources is determined for minimum operating costs. The results obtained demonstrated that the future electrical energy requirement can be compensated with the help of nuclear power plants as well as carbon capture and storage units to be built for thermal power plants.

Turkey's nuclear energy policy: towards a sustainable energy mix?

To originate new sustainable development policies is a prerequisite for achieving a higher level of worldwide economic and social development. The efficiency of a sustainable development policy could, and should, be measured by a multi-dimensional analysis that comprises all social, economic and environmental factors. Acknowledging the requirement to have a sustainable energy mix, net energy importer Turkey has initiated its nuclear energy programme. However, this move by Turkey also brings forth certain environmental, social and economic issues that have been a matter of ongoing debate. This study aims not only to contribute to the debate by providing a balanced enquiry of nuclear energy's pros and cons, but also to determine the pre-conditions for it to prompt Turkey to reach a sustainable energy future. The nuclear option has a significant potential to drive Turkey's transition to sustainable energy as long as several environmental, social and economic risk factors are minimised.

The Contribution of Renewables in Turkish Energy Security

Turkey's energy consumption is low compared to its young population. However, energy consumption is rapidly increasing as a result of economic growth in recent years, a trend which is expected to continue. Accordingly, guaranteeing adequate energy supply for its growing economy remains at the top of the governmental agenda. While energy consumption is increasing, Turkey is becoming increasingly dependent on fossil fuel imports, especially in oil and natural gas. Increasing awareness toward the environmental issues, energy prices and lack of diversification are the most immediate threats. All these are significant threats to Turkish energy security and thus have become a greater focus of attention. In response, Turkish energy policy is developing into a multi-dimensional one, considering the primary goals of securing energy supply and increasing the level of diversification and decreasing environmental effects. Accordingly, these considerations have tended to endorse renewable energy. Renewable energy resources are emerging as one of the most efficient, indigenous and effective solutions for clean and sustainable energy development in Turkey. Its geographical location allows extensive use of most types of renewable sources. This paper analyzes the current and possible future contribution of renewable energy in Turkish energy policy, considering supply security, diversification and environmental concerns.