Turkey’s renewable energy potential

Turkey‟s energy policy target is planned to reach a 20% renewable energy share by the year of 2020, and 30% in 2050, respectively. The instruments to reach this goal range from the „Law of the Turkish Policies on Renewable Energies‟ to the political and financial support of research and development of renewable energy sources. The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of the Turkey has listed CSP (concentrating solar power) as an important research issue in the „Summary of National mid & long-Term Science and Energy Technology Development Plan‟ (2006–2020). On the other hand, up to now, no commercial solar thermal power plant is in operation in Turkey. Renewable energy production makes up approximately 14.4% of the total primary energy supply (TPES), i.e. 10.30 Mtoe in 2007, and renewable sources represent the second-largest domestic energy source after coal. Table III shows solar energy potential in Turkey. In spite of this high potential, solar energy is not now widely used, except for flat plate solar collectors. They are only used for domestic hot water production, mostly in the sunny coastal regions. In 2007, about 8.0 million m2 solar collectors were produced and it is predicted that total solar energy production is about 0.390 Mtoe. Since mid-2000‟s as a result of applied important structural changes and increased investment incentives in renewable energy, investment demands above the potential on wind energy has arisen in Turkey. In the near future there will be an overloaded demand to solar energy like wind energy. In this context the possible usage areas and rate effects of renewable energies replaced with fossil fuels to the economical benefit of the country can be examined. Wind energy Wind energy is the fastest growing energy source and technology in the world and wind power is one of the most widely used alternative sources of energy today. In most of the some countries wind power in share of gross electric consumption is continuously increasing. As an example, in Germany its share has reached to 6.4% in 2010. The west parts of Anatolia have been identified as very favorable locations for wind power generation in Turkey. As for the background in Turkey, wind energy has always played an important role in the historical and economical development of Anatolia. The people used wind energy for hundreds of years for pumping water and grinding grain in Anatolia. Then, they must have been dominant landmarks already in the 14th century in Anatolia and the wind mills were built mainly in the 19th century. Recently, wind power as a potential renewable energy source has grown in Turkey. Today, it is estimated that Turkey has 160 TWh a year of wind potential, which is about twice as much as the current electricity consumption of Turkey. According to Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, the wind potential of Turkey is given as 88,000 GW and the economic potential is estimated as 10,000 MW or higher [8]. Although, wind energy has a significant contribution to the energy system, for effective energy planning in the grid systems, prediction of wind energy production should be accurately up to 48-72 hours. Today, the majority of wind energy projects in Turkey are concentrated in the west with and Mediterranean regions with a total 25 projects. The installed capacity of wind energy is expected to reach 20,000 MW by 2023. Solar Energy Solar radiation arriving on earth surface is the most fundamental renewable energy source. In recent years, solar energy utilization in various applications has increased significantly. Turkey is promising country for solar energy potential. Turkey‟s geographical location is highly favorable for the utilization of solar energy. Turkey is geographically located (36-42°N latitudes) in a useful position for the solar power in the South Eastern of Europe and the Mediterranean. Solar radiation incident on a horizontal surface and sunshine duration are measured in the meteorological stations by Turkish State Meteorological Service (TSMS)in Turkey.The country has an average 3.6 kWh/m2-day irradiation and 7.2 hours insolation time per day (Table II). In the southern parts of Turkey, there are about 3000 sunshine hours per year. The insolation values are higher and conditions for solar power generation are comparable to Spain.Southeastern Anatolia and Mediterranean regions of Turkey are in the highest levels with closing to 1500 kWh/m²-year. Solar energy is widely used in Turkey. The main solar energy utilizations in Turkey are the flat-plate collectors in domestic hot water systems. The hot water heating system installations exceeds 10 million m2 area having with a total installed capacity of 7.8 GWth in 2008. Turkey is in the 2nd rank of the top countries using solar thermal power in worldwide following China. In China, this figure exceeds 100 GWth Furthermore, utilization of photovoltaic systems is very limited with the usage of some governmental organizations in remote service areas such as telecom stations, forest fire observation towers and highway emergency only. However, it is hoping that the photovoltaic system will play an important role in the future energy planning in Turkey. The research and development of photovoltaic in Turkey is very new. It has not commercialized yet. The installed capacity of solar energy in Turkey is very small. Short-term forecasts are important tasks with potential, leading to improved energy forecasts and helping to increase the efficiency of the renewable energy productions for photovoltaic solutions as well contributing to improve the management and presumably the design of the energy grids in the future. Short-term forecasts are important tasks with potential, leading to improved energy forecasts and helping to increase the efficiency of the renewable energy productions as well contributing to improve the management and presumably the design of the energy grids in the future.

Selahattin İncecik, Ceyhan Kahya, Erhan Çalışkan and Hüseyin Toros