Recent illegal Turkish hydrocarbon research in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and specifically in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Republic of Cyprus (EU) and the illegal establishment of an EEZ between Turkey and Libya that violates grossly International Law, causing friction with the neighboring countries of Turkey, while emitting Turkey as an international factor of destabilisation, apart from their geopolitical dimension, reflect the huge economic and energy needs to satisfy the internal demand of this country.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) report May 2019 (www.iea.org), the total primary energy supply in Turkey is analyzed to 31% oil, 28.1% coal, 28.1% natural gas, 4.2% hydro, 6.3% geothermal, wind and solar energy and 2.3% biofuels and waste (www.iea.org/data-and-statistics).
by Thanos S. Chonthrogiannis
©The law of intellectual property is prohibited in any way unlawful use/appropriation of this article, with heavy civil and criminal penalties for the infringer.
Photo by David Banbennick, Public Domain
Examining Turkey ‘s energy data
1. Energy from coal
Oil along with coal is the largest source of energy production in Turkey. Existing facilities in Turkey have the potential to generate electricity through the combustion of carbon total efficiency of 18.5 GW. The coal production Is projected to grow further by 2023.
Photo by Javabite, licensed Public Domain
2. Energy from hydroelectricity
Hydro-electric installations in total (public and private) in Turkey yield electricity of 19.7% compared to the total energy produced in the country.
3. Energy from geothermal
Turkey in 2018 ranked first in the world at the rate of growth in terms of its new geothermal capacity by increasing its available power by 21% or from 219 MW to 1.3 GW.
4. Shale oil and gas energy
In October 2019, the production of shale gas began in Turkey.
5. Renewable Energy Sources
Turkey has launched the construction of 5 solar parks, a hydro-electric plant and the production of electric public transport. The funding of these projects will be done through the EU assistance programs to Turkey with a view to the energy and economic convergence of its economy with the EU (IPA II).
Turkey intends to increase its productivity from RES to 64 GW in 2025. In addition, a wind farm will be created with wind turbines outside the city of Izmir.
6. Thermal waste treatment
In Turkey co-incinerate to date 1 million tons of waste for energy production, while transformed (2018) 138000 tons of waste into production of 37000 tons of compost.
7. Nuclear energy
The Akkuyu nuclear power plant is manufactured by the Russian company Rosatom and will comprise four units of 1200 MW. The first phase involves the construction of two units. The total cost of the investment is around $20 billion, while Turkey has given permission to the same Russian company to construct a second nuclear plant.
8. Battery power and storage
The Japanese companies Toyota and Panasonic have been licensed to produce electric vehicle batteries in Turkey. While the Turkish company Zorlu Enerji has announced the construction of a 25 GW storage battery production unit in collaboration with a Chinese company.
9. Rare Earths
The company AMR Mineral Metal Inc. has focused on extracting, processing and promoting deposits of rare earth and metals in Turkey.
Photo by US Department of Agriculture, licensed Public Domain
The Energy Development Road
What is seen with Turkey’s above energy data is the fact that Turkey is trying to exploit and expand on all the energy sources and capabilities it can have available which energy sources are diverse and complementary between them. Essentially it is indicated a road of real energy growth followed by Turkey and not a status of energy losses management.
The achievement of this energy development road is achieved and will continue to be achieved in the future by Turkey with three different methods:
1. It does not burden its industries with CO2 emission charges and other restrictive policies imposed the EU on EU territory.
2. At the same time Turkey gains from carbon leakage.
3. Turkey is using the funds offered by European Investment Bank (EIB) and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to the best extent. The EBRD has already invested €11.5 billion in Turkey’s private sector.
It can be concluded that the illegal drilling to find Turkey’s hydrocarbons in the EEZ of foreign countries in the Mediterranean Sea, apart from presenting it as a destabilizing factor in the Eastern Mediterranean, is its terrifying energy needs that lead Turkey to illegalities.
Turkey believes that by solving its present energy deficit with the illegal annexation of hydrocarbon deposits and their future exploitation, it will be able to resolve the unsustainable repayment of the external debt it causes In turn the deep devaluation of the Turkish currency and an increase in inflation that sooner or later this ongoing situation will lead to social unrest.
We believe that Turkey’s illegalities in foreign EEZ have already made it an inappropriate country as a transit gas hub due to the destabilisation it causes in the Eastern Mediterranean, while the sound policy that will resolve its energy problem lies in its increasing deepening of energy production and use that comes exclusively from electricity (RES) with increasing storage spaces, nuclear energy and shale oil and gas.
Only in this way will Turkey become energy-independent, without its manufactured products in the future being at risk of being excluded from EU markets due to the imposition of tariffs provided for global polluters by the EU Green Deal plan (please read analysis “EU-The Green Deal and its Problems”) .
