Investments in renewable energy are on the way

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar spoke at the session titled "Technological sovereignty and low-carbon energy: Looking to the future," held as part of Russian Energy Week in Moscow, the capital of Russia.

Pointing out that the traditional challenge in energy is supplying energy to the consumer in a reliable and low-cost manner, Bayraktar stated, "Now, in addition to supplying energy in a reliable and low-cost way, supplying it in an environmentally friendly manner has emerged as a new challenge for us."

Stating that these challenges also apply to the Turkish energy market, Bayraktar said, "Because we are a growing market, our energy demand is increasing on both the electricity and natural gas sides. There has been an approximately 3-fold increase in the last 20 years. Our energy demand is increasing by 4.7 percent every year, and we think this trend will continue for 20 years."

Minister Bayraktar underscored that for this reason, a significant amount of investment needs to be made in energy production in Turkey.

TURKEY'S CARBON NEUTRAL TARGET

Reminding that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the target of reaching carbon neutrality by 2053 two years ago, Bayraktar said, "We only have 30 years, and we need to transform our entire energy system, from agriculture to transportation and industry, all our sectors. We need to carry out a transformation in the field of energy in all sectors of the economy."

Emphasizing that Turkey is making significant investments to reach carbon neutrality in energy, Bayraktar said, "First of all, we have significant potential in renewable energy. Alexey Likhachev, Director General of the Russian State Nuclear Energy Corporation Rosatom, also wants to invest in the Turkish renewable energy market. We are currently developing projects for solar and wind energy."

Minister Bayraktar pointed to the increasing importance of renewable energy in the Turkish energy sector and stated, "55 percent of Turkey's installed capacity comes from renewable energy, and we want to increase this even further. We need to increase our installed capacity in solar and wind energy by 5 gigawatts every year until 2035. Our additional renewable energy installation in solar and wind will reach 60 gigawatts in 12 years."

Emphasizing that energy efficiency is also an important issue, Bayraktar said that energy production and consumption must be carried out efficiently across the entire economy.

TURKEY'S NUCLEAR ENERGY NEED

Stating that Rosatom is building the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in line with the agreement signed with Russia, Bayraktar said, "However, in the long term, we need at least 20 gigawatts of installed capacity in nuclear energy. Akkuyu's capacity is 4.8 gigawatts, but we also need second and third nuclear power plants. Rosatom is also showing great interest in the nuclear power plant we are planning in Sinop."

Expressing that construction work at the Akkuyu NPP is being carried out effectively with tens of thousands of workers, Bayraktar provided the information, "We were on-site two weeks ago. Our goal is to produce electricity from the first reactor in 2024. In the following years, we will put the entire power plant into operation. 10 percent of our energy needs will come from this facility, and this will allow us to avoid 30 to 35 million tons of carbon emissions."

Bayraktar said that they are also taking steps for solutions in the field of small modular reactors.

"WE NEED TO FIND THE RIGHT BALANCE IN ENERGY SUPPLY"

Stating that they attach importance to competitive and low-cost energy supply in Turkey, Minister Bayraktar noted the following:

"We need to provide competitive and low-cost energy supply to our industry and our households. As an industrial country, Turkey has a very high capacity in terms of production, and they also need reliable energy in electricity and natural gas. We need to find the right balance in reliable and competitive energy supply."

Saying that the renewable energy field has also become competitive with technological developments, Bayraktar said, "Most importantly, it is to supply competitive, low-cost, and reliable energy to the market. Our nuclear energy plans also seem to be compatible with this, and we hope that this will continue to be the case."

News Source: 12punto