The Use of Renewable Energy Sources for Energy in Turkey and Potential Trends

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate to use of renewable sources in Turkey. Turkey is rapidly growing in terms of both its economy and its population. In parallel, its demand for energy, particularly for electricity, is increasing fast. Energy is one of Turkey's most important development priorities. Turkey also has a large potential for renewable energies. The most important renewable sources for Turkey's energy sector are solar in its various forms, wind, biomass, hydro and geothermal. Turkey's geographic location has several advantages for extensive use of most of the renewable energy sources. The amount of annual biomass potential of Turkey is approximately 32 mtoe. Turkey has a gross annual hydro potential of 433,000 GWh, which is almost 1% of world total potential. Currently, wind power capacity in Turkey is around 19 MW, with units located all over the country. Turkey's solar energy potential has estimated to be 26.4 million toes as thermal and 8.8 million toes as electricity and geothermal potential is about 38,000 MW.