Turkey Encourages Renewable Energy Usage

Istanbul, TURKEY | October 29, 2008 by D-8 Secretariat

A draft of a new law encouraging renewable energy usage in Turkey has been presented to Parliament as part of a move to decrease Turkey’s energy dependence.

According to the draft, prepared by Soner Aksoy, the head of Parliament’s Energy and Industry Commission, the state will guarantee that it will purchase electricity generated from renewable energy plants established within the next eight years. The state will buy electricity from renewable energy plants at higher rates than the average wholesale price arranged by the Energy Market Regulatory Agency (EPDK). “The state will pay 5-18 cents per kilowatt hour for the electricity generated by the renewable energy plants until 2016,” Aksoy noted, saying that this was a short-term incentive package and that such applications to encourage entrepreneurs would continue. For the first five years, the state will pay 5 cents per kilowatt hour for hydroelectric energy, 6 cents for wind, 7 for geothermal, 14 for biomass and 18 for solar energy.

As part of the incentives in the draft, state land will be made available for the establishment of renewable energy plants. The General Directorate of Electrical Power Resources Survey and Development Administration (EIE) will convey suitable construction plans to the state, which will allocate land to the project. New public buildings will be constructed in a form that will harness renewable energy as efficiently as possible.

Aksoy stated that they had prepared the draft encouraging and supporting renewable energy usage in response to continuously increasing energy prices in global markets. He said current laws are not effective in facilitating the use of renewable energy resources, so they had to make reforms. “For instance, we focus on solar energy usage more in the new law,” he said. He noted that Turkey has massive renewable energy sources — including wind, solar, hydraulic and geothermal energies — and the country must exploit this huge potential.

He also said renewable energy makes up only 26 percent of Turkey’s total energy usage, adding that they expect to increase this figure with the new law. “We will meet the expectations of entrepreneurs who are willing to establish renewable energy plants to a great extent,” he said. Parliament is expected to approve the bill and put the law into force within a short period of time.

D-8 member states posses huge potential of natural resources, such as tin and minerals. As popularly known, Indonesia and Malaysia are the world’s biggest palm oil producer, either for food or bio diesel; while Turkey also renown for its boron, which is imported by most Asian countries.

D-8 plans to hold at least two programs this year with regard to mines and energy industries. During the fourth D-8 Working Group Meeting on Energy in Cairo, Egypt on 1-2 June 2008, Indonesian delegation confirmed their readiness to be the host for the 1st D-8 Working Group on Mines Cooperation. Delegations from the memberstates will sit down to discuss potential issues in Working Group on Mines, and Working Group on Industry, in Bali, Indonesia, in early December 2008.

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