Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 31
By Elena Kosolapova – Trend:
On average, demand for electricity increases by 5.78 percent per year in Turkey and over the past 10 years, it increased by 70 percent, said Alpay Unal, chairman of Era Yatırım Holding and president of TOBB (Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey) Energy Council.
Unal made the remarks Aug. 31 during the 2016 Eurasian Conference of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) in Baku.
Turkey has great potential of renewable energy sources (RES), the use of which can reduce the country’s dependency on fossil fuel imports, he said.
Gross energy potential of Turkey’s hydropower resources is 430-450 gigawatts (GW) per year, solar energy – 365 GW per year, biogas and wind – 1.58 GW per year, geothermal energy resources – 16 GW per year, according to him.
Meanwhile, currently, the potential of hydropower resources is used by only 30 percent, solar energy – by 4.5 percent, bioresources – by 16.8 percent and geothermal resources – by 22.5 percent.
He added also that Turkey plans to increase hydro energy output up to 34,000 megawatts (MW), wind energy – up to 20,000 MW, solar energy – up to 10,000 MW, geothermal energy – up to 1,000 MW, energy from biomass – up to 1,000 MW by 2023.
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