The Role of Geothermal Energy in Sustainable Development of Turkey

Abstract

Energy can strongly act a key role in socio-economical development of Turkey. Turkey's energy needs are always increasing because Turkey has a rapidly growing economy and population. Although Turkey has numerous renewable energy sources, Turkey meets 12.8% of total demand from its own indigenous sources and unfortunately 87.2% of that from oil and gas supplying countries. This disastrous reality makes Turkey a big energy importing country. Otherwise, Turkey, in fact, can provide all energy demand from its abundant domestic sources itself. Although Turkey has the seventh big geothermal energy potential of the world, it exploits only 1.2% of all energy demand from geothermal energy. In this study, the role of geothermal energy in sustainable development of Turkey is particularly emphasized. To do this, potential and utilization of geothermal energy in Turkey are firstly presented in detail, and then importance and future developments of geothermal energy in Turkey are underlined.