Renewable energy from woody biomass in Turkey

Abstract

Biomass is the major source of energy in rural Turkey. Biomass is used to meet a variety of energy needs, including generating electricity, heating homes, fueling vehicles and providing process heat for industrial facilities. Biomass potential includes wood, animal and plant wastes. Among the biomass energy sources, fuelwood seems to be the most interesting because its share of the total energy production of Turkey is high at 11 %. Turkey’s annual biomass potential is about 120 million tons and the total biomass energy potential is about 36 Mtoe. The amount of usable biomass potential of Turkey is approximately 18 Mtoe. Turkey has the potential to produce 4.0 million tons of wood pellet has approximately 780 million dollars of market value by the help of existing woody biomass. Producible wood pellet could account to 1.4% of total primary energy consumption in 2014 and 1.38% of imported energy. If Turkey utilized existing woody biomass as wood pellet, this would represent a saving of 340 million dollars from energy imported in 2014. The capacity for wood pellet production in Turkey is quite low, due to its high cost. Therefore, relevant institutions should launch more projects to promote the production and consumption of wood pellet. International pellet standards should be adopted, and private sector should be encouraged by government.