Sustainable Energy In Turkey – OpEd
In our geography this is an oximoron expression, that is, it consists of unrelated words, Our energy market is truly unsustainable,
First we hoped to utilise domestic coal, our local coal quality is very low, very bad, it is very difficult to burn. We said that there is a suitable fluidized bed technology, we looked at it, yried to build new fluşdised bed thermal power plants, however our fluidized bed technology is not suitable for wet ash coal, it does not burn properly, and pre-drying is required. If pre-drying is not done, coal with high water content enters the combustion chamber as ice in winter and as mud in summer.
Then we started the imported coal thermal power plants reluctantly, the price of imported coal was 60 USD per ton for 6000 kcal/kg high heating value coal, but it turned out not so good because the demand for fossil fuels increased all over the world after the Ukraine war and there was an embargo on Russian coal, its price in the international spot markets, it rose high very much, it is nowadays $ 300+, the cost of electricity produced with expensive imported coal increased to incredible high levels, followed by the application of the capacity mechanism, we subsidized it from the treasury out of the pocket of the nation.
The policies of escaping from coal in Europe were turned upside down, and each country was in trouble to save its own market.
Transmission lines and thermal power plants were bombed in Ukraine, production was cut in half. serious changes were needed in Germany’s edible policies.
There was an earthquake in Southeast of Turkey, we stopped the thermal power plants for a while as a precaution, we gave the production to hydraulic power plants, the water levels in the dams decreased to the minimum level, the electricity production was difficult to meet the demand.
The sun, wind, which we sneered at and called with low availability, was a lifesaver.
Wind and Solar wind is not sustainable either, to what extent, serious storage capacity is needed.
Natural gas is a separate disaster in our geography, the situation is unsustainable, but we are still purchasing it, there is no other country with such foreign dependency.
France looked to have no reliable conventional fuel turned nuclear.
The Nord Stream submarine pipe in North Sea is blown up by unknown terrorist attack, Germany reopens coal-fired power plants, repowers renewable energy
We, on the other hand, are devastated in these unsustainable energy markets.
Recently, we have been under the influence of the great global economic crisis due to the Ukraine war. Global capacity utilization is falling. Global unemployment is rising. All this will cover a certain period of time, and in the end, the war will pass like this, it will end. Turkey’s energy needs will never end. In the face of this huge domestic demand, the current supply is not enough / will not be enough for a long time.
Our job is “Risk assessment”. We “determine risk” and guide the investor and, more importantly, the financing institution that gives the project loan to the investor. Everyone gives good false news, the important thing is to be able to give bad news with difficult problems, risk analysis, difficult solutions, and more importantly, to be able to give them early.
Thermal power plant cannot/should not be built/incentivized in Agriculture/Forest/Protection/Tourism regions, EIA/License should not be given. Local agricultural people should not be victimized.
Most of our old thermal power plants have run out of coal, underground exploration has begun in the surrounding lands in order to find new coal, the power plants are already old, they must be dismantled and sold as scrap. It seems futile effort to find new coal to find and burn. It is not right to destroy the surrounding olive groves and to destroy historical protected areas for new coal fields.
A thermal power plant should be built with maximum domestic production, the basic design should be made by local engineers, incentives should be given for domestic coal power plants if they are to be given, in fact, no incentives should be given other than the standard general tax deductions applicable to normal energy investments. Unnecessary Treasury burden should not be taken. “All kinds of goodwill and encouragement are abused with care” all over the world, this is how it is all over the world.
