Environmental Sustainability Analysis of Renewables in Turkey

While previously the concept of sustainable development only consists of the economic development in monetary term, today its meaning is elaborated very largely. It includes food security, new and renewable energy, harmony with nature, promotion of human rights, friendly technological development etc (Morgera, 2010). Therefore, today, the sustainable development can be defined as to meet the needs of the current and future generations without exhausting natural resources by establishing a balance between nature and human beings. This definition consist of the programming the development of today and future life of the generations and nature. Hence, sustainable development is a concept that has social, economic, ecological and cultural dimension in contemporary world.

Since the beginning of the 20^th century, the energy consumption, CO₂ and harmful emission increased 17 times in the world. The greenhouse effect has been felt more commonly in contemporary world. Since the majority of energy demand was met by fossil based resources, the main reason of the greenhouse effect and harmful emission is the fossil based energy resources. Hence, today the countries have been trying to develop more reliable, harmless and environmentally friendly domestic energy resources to limit the harmful effects of the fossil based resources. Due to the fact that renewable energy resources are harmless, domestic and inexhaustible resources, they gained popularity especially after the emergence of sustainable development concept in 1980s. In Table 1 The CO₂ emission of the energy resources were given.

Table 1: Carbon Dioxide Emissions Per kWh of Energy Sources

Resource: MENR, Energy Resources, 2014

In terms of environmental sustainability, the renewable energy has an unchallenged superiority against the fossil based resources. Because, in order to produce 1 kWh energy, the coal cause 900-1.200 gram emission,  oil 700-900 gram and natural gas 350-900 gram emission. However, the renewable energy resources do not produce any carbon emission or their emissions are very little and at the tolerable level, when they are generating energy.

Although some of the writers criticize the hydraulic and wind energy for their harm to environment, such as migratory bird death and noise, they are not permanent effects. In addition, their side effects are very little compared to fossil based resources and today lots of the harmful effect of these two resources can be eliminated.

In Table 2 the remaining economic capacity of renewable energy of Turkey and their contribution to the emission reduction was calculated. Since most of the houses are heated by natural gas and nearly half of the electricity production is made by using the natural gas, we took the average value of natural gas emission (natural gas’ emission is changing between the 350-900/gr emission per 1 kWh electricity) as 625 gr/1 kWh, while calculating the emission reduction. Besides, State Planning Organization showed that 1.000.000 residential can be economically heated by using geothermal energy in Turkey. If the 100.000 residential are heated by geothermal energy, nearly equivalent of 1.000.000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions can be prevented and this number is equal to the emission of the 600.000 vehicles. (DPT, 2001a: 46). Therefore, we took the geothermal energy, used in residential and the vehicle’s emission in our calculation.

Emission Contribution of Remaining Economic Capacity of Renewable Energy

Resource: This table was prepared by us according to the latest data of natural gas cost, remaining capacity, and efficiency ratio of renewable energy resources under the current technological level.

* Average efficiency is taken 60 %, ** (1) TMEC: 287.000, ** (2) MENR 50.000 *** 1 TWh is equal to 1 billion kWh **** Average emission of natural gas is taken as 625 gr/kWh in our calculation.

According to the table 2, by using remaining the economic (or feasible) capacity of renewable energy resources in Turkey, at least 173.5 million tons of carbon dioxide emission can be prevented. This number is equal to the 108.000.000 vehicles’ emission. With the contribution of the other renewables, used both in electricity production and heating, the carbon dioxide emission can be decreased significantly. All of these situations support our first hypothesis that renewable energy investment can contribute the ecological sustainability of Turkey.

As it can be seen from table 2, in terms of environmental sustainability, Turkey should increase renewable energy investment and its share in total energy supply. Because, our country is the 13^th country in the carbon emission in the world and it has the highest emission increase ratio in the world between the 1990-2010 years. To fulfill the obligation of Kyoto Protocol, Turkey has to find new and clean energy resources.

Comparing with the EU countries Turkey’s renewable energy potential is very substantial.  The solar, winds, geothermal and hydraulic energy potential of country can contribute its sustainable development in term of environmental sustainability. They are not only clean but also domestic and do not have side effect like being fossil based resources. Therefore, renewable potential of Turkey should be evaluated as soon as possible. To increase renewable energy investment is not only necessity but also obligatory for our country to fulfill its international obligation and to protect its environment.

sincerely...

Ömer DEMİRDAŞ

fikiranalizim@gmail.com