Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Bayraktar announced that Turkiye’s wind potential is 100 thousand megawatts, and with developments in technology, this can reach 150 thousand megawatts.
At the 12th Turkish Wind Energy Congress (TUREK 2023), held this year with the theme “Century of the Wind”, Bayraktar said that although primary energy intensity has been reduced by 27% in the last 20 years, demand has doubled.
Minister Bayraktar pointed out that energy demand will increase in the next 20 years and said, “In the past 20 years, electricity demand increased by 5% annually in the same period. We predict that it will increase by more than 3% annually in the next 20 years.”
Stating that the share of electricity in final energy demand is estimated to increase to 30% in the next 20 years, Bayraktar continued as follows:
“Without compromising supply security, we have prepared the infrastructure for the clean energy transformation and initiated this transformation. We have determined energy efficiency, renewable energy, nuclear, natural gas as a transition fuel, hydrogen, storage technologies, digitalization and critical minerals as our priority areas for the electricity transformation. We have determined our implementation tools for the development of priority areas as access to international financing, development and localization of technologies and capacity development.”
Bayraktar stated that carbon-free energy sources come to the fore in meeting the increasing demand. “It is necessary to benefit from solar and wind energy at the highest possible level, to make necessary investments in the transmission and distribution network, supporting technologies such as storage, hydrogen and digitalization, and to support local technology development and global supply chain diversity.”
“We aim to meet 25% of our electricity needs from wind.”
Stating that the wind energy sector has reached an installed power of 11 thousand 609 megawatts and an annual turnover of approximately €2 billion and meets approximately 11% of the country’s electricity needs, Bayraktar said:
“The world average for the share of wind energy in total production is 7.5%. In other words, the current potential we use in our country is more than the world average. However, we have a much greater potential. For this reason, we aim to increase this rate in 20 years and meet 25% of our electricity needs from wind energy. To achieve these goals, we need improvements, reforms and new regulations in many areas. More than 28 thousand megawatts of capacity, including licensed, unlicensed, storage and YEKA, have been allocated, but the investments have not yet been put into operation, and are currently in the hands of our investors. We want this allocated capacity to come into operation as soon as possible.”
Bayraktar stated that the work on updating the Wind Energy Potential Atlas, which the Ministry has been carrying out in cooperation with national and international organizations since 2017, has been completed. “According to the updated atlas data, we estimate that our wind potential is approximately 100 thousand megawatts under current technology and conditions, and that it can reach up to 150 thousand megawatts thanks to the developments in wind turbine technologies. Considering our current installed capacity, this potential means an additional capacity of approximately 140 thousand megawatts. “This amount corresponds to an investment of $140 billion in today’s figures.”
Bayraktar said that thanks to the electricity and domestic contribution supports in YEKDEM, generators, blades, towers and tower fittings for wind power plants are produced in the country, and industrialists in Turkiye have reached the level of exporting 80% of their production in blades and turbine tower parts to the world markets.
Minister Bayraktar added that green employment opportunities were provided to approximately 25 thousand people in the sector.
Source: Trthaber / Prepared by Irem Yildiz