Renewables for climate change mitigation and domestic energy utilization in Turkey

Abstract

As a fast-growing country, energy consumption has increased in Turkey due to economic developments by industrialization and urbanization. To meet the increasing demand, significant investments are required in electricity generation technologies. Turkey has a limited amount of fossil fuel reserve, thus is dependent on foreign energy. Approximately 75% of current energy consumption is met by imports. However, Turkey has a high potential of renewables such as biomass, hydropower, wind, solar, and geothermal energy, but the current utilization rate of these resources is very low. In recent years, in Turkey, hydraulic, solar, geothermal, and wind-based energy production has started to become widespread. The present study discussed the renewable energy sources for climate change mitigation and domestic energy utilization in Turkey.