The Assessment of Coal's Contribution to Sustainable Energy Development in Turkey

Abstract

Turkey's energy consumption has grown and will continue to grow along with its economy. Energy demand of the country is growing by 8% annually, one of the highest rates in the world. Turkey has very limited oil, natural gas and hard coal reserves. Turkey is currently heavily dependent on imports to meet its energy demand because of limited domestic energy resources. Lignite is the country's most important domestic energy source. Turkey has approximately 10400 million tons of lignite and 1300 million tons of hard coal reserves. This paper analyzed the structure of coal consumption over the past three decades in Turkey using the information of relevant researches and the published statistical data, and also analyzed the changing trends in the energy consumption structure, to provide some reference for the development of energy in Turkey. This work has attracted considerable interest because the subject of coal energy and its effect in the daily lives of people maintains a keen interest. The paper examines entirely new areas of coal energy research, summarizes recent trends, and discusses the most important current methods used to produce coal fuels.