Minister Bayraktar stated that Turkiye has important investment plans in renewable energy and said, “We need to increase our installed power in solar and wind energy by 5 gigawatts every year until 2035. Our additional renewable energy installation in solar and wind will reach 60 gigawatts in 12 years.”
Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar spoke at the session titled “Technological sovereignty and low carbon energy: Looking to the future” held within the scope of Russian Energy Week held in Moscow, the capital of Russia.
Pointing out that the traditional challenge in energy is to supply energy to consumers in a reliable and low-cost manner, Bayraktar said, “Now, supplying energy in a reliable and low-cost manner as well as in an environmentally friendly manner appears before us as a new challenge.”
Stating that these difficulties are also valid in the Turkish energy market, Bayraktar said, “Because we are a growing market, our energy demand is increasing on both the electricity and natural gas side. There has been an approximately 3-fold increase in the last 20 years. Our energy demand is increasing by 4.7% every year and we think this trend will continue for 20 years.”
Minister Bayraktar therefore underlined the need to make significant investments in energy production in Turkiye.
Turkiye’s carbon neutral target
Reminding that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2053 two years ago, Bayraktar said, “We only have 30 years and we need to transform our entire energy system, all our sectors, from agriculture to transportation and industry. We need to transform the energy field in all sectors of the economy.”
Emphasizing that Turkiye has made significant investments to reach carbon neutrality in energy, Bayraktar said, “First of all, we have a significant potential in renewable energy. Russian State Nuclear Energy Corporation Rosatom General Manager Aleksey Likhachev also wants to invest in the Turkish renewable energy market. We are currently developing projects for solar and wind energy.”
Minister Bayraktar pointed out the increasing importance of renewable energy in the Turkish energy sector and said, “55% of Turkiye’s installed power comes from renewable energy and we want to increase this further. We need to increase our installed power in solar and wind energy by 5 gigawatts every year until 2035. Our additional renewable energy installation in solar and wind will reach 60 gigawatts in 12 years.”
Emphasizing that energy efficiency is also an important issue, Bayraktar said that energy production and consumption should be carried out efficiently in the entire economy.
Turkiye’s nuclear energy needs
Bayraktar stated that Rosatom built the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NGP) in line with the agreement signed with Russia. “However, in the long term, we need at least 20 gigawatts of installed power in nuclear energy. Akkuyu’s capacity is 4.8 gigawatts, but we also need the second and third nuclear power plants. Rosatom also shows great interest in the nuclear power plant we plan in Sinop.”
Stating that the construction work at Akkuyu NPP is carried out effectively with tens of thousands of employees, Bayraktar said, “We were on site two weeks ago. Our goal is to produce electricity from the first reactor in 2024. We will put the entire power plant into operation in the following years. 10% of our energy needs will come from this facility, which will allow us to avoid 30 to 35 million tons of carbon emissions.”
Bayraktar said that they are also taking steps for solutions in the field of small modular reactors.
“We need to find the right balance in energy supply”
Stating that they attach importance to competitive and low-cost energy supply in Turkiye, Minister Bayraktar said:
“We need to provide competitive and low-cost energy supply to our industry and households. Turkiye, as an industrial country, has a very high capacity at the point of production and they also need reliable energy in electricity and natural gas. We need to find the right balance in reliable and competitive energy supply.”
Stating that the renewable energy field has become competitive with technological developments, Bayraktar said, “The most important thing is to supply competitive, low-cost and reliable energy to the market. Our nuclear energy plans seem to be compatible with this, and we hope that this will continue.”
Source: Trthaber / Prepared by Irem Yildiz