Ibrahim Erden, President of the Turkish Wind Energy Association, stated that an installed power of 18 thousand megawatts is targeted with an investment of $5 billion in wind energy by 2028.
Erden, President of the Turkish Wind Energy Association (TUREB), answered the questions of the AA correspondent at the 12th Turkish Wind Energy Congress (TUREK 2023).
Stating that most of the wind power plants in the country are in Western Anatolia, Erden said that in recent years, investments have also spread towards Central Anatolia and Eastern Anatolia Region.
Erden pointed out that the installed power of wind energy in Turkiye has reached 12 thousand megawatts and stated that the potential in this field is much higher.
Pointing out that there is an installed power potential of 120 thousand to 150 thousand megawatts on land, Erden said:
“We are only at 10% of the potential. The public and private sectors need to take many steps to develop this. The most important issue here is to make existing investments quickly. There are two elements to do this. First, investors need to complete their permit processes quickly. Many permit processes, such as environmental permits, zoning permits, and land allocation permits, need to proceed quickly. The first thing the public can do is to facilitate these and speed up the processes. The private sector also needs to develop projects quickly in order for these investments to progress quickly.”
Reminding that within the scope of the 12th Development Plan, 18 thousand megawatts in wind energy installed power is targeted in 5 years, Erden said, “The investment amount of this is $5 billion . That is, we are talking about an investment of $1 billion per year. We see this as the minimum target, and we hope that investments will continue to be higher than this.”
The wind industry will grow exponentially
Stating that Turkiye is Europe’s 5th largest wind industry, Erden said, “There is a great potential for this to go even higher. We have built 12 thousand megawatts in 15 years, but we will probably build 2.5-3 times this in the next 10-12 years. Therefore, this industry will have to grow exponentially. There is potential to grow, the infrastructure has been established, all that remains is to build the structure on this infrastructure.”
Erden stated that he foresees that the existing wind and solar capacities with storage will bring serious foreign investors to Turkiye in the coming years and continued as follows:
“Projects with storage reach 19 thousand megawatts in wind and 16 thousand megawatts in solar. We are talking about a total capacity of 35 thousand megawatts. This is a very interesting thing for investors, local and foreign investors are interested in this. What is important is how storage processes, storage costs and equipment costs will develop from now on, because the more affordable the investment costs, the more feasible the projects will be. The second is financing. I think that these investments can be made quickly if the costs come down in the coming period. The next 2-3 years will be spent in the project development process. If the permit processes go quickly, projects can be developed when financing is currently expensive, and after 2-3 years, when the costs decrease, that financing will support the construction of these projects.”
Noting that the progress made on land in wind energy can also be made in offshore wind energy, Erden pointed out that 5 gigawatts of offshore installed power is targeted within the scope of Turkiye’s National Energy Plan 2035.
Erden said:
“In offshore wind, the work does not end when a turbine is installed. Wind measurements on the sea, wave measurements, ground surveys and underground studies need to be carried out very well. When investing in a wind power plant on land, the turbine accounts for approximately 70-75% of the power plant investment, and vice versa on the offshore side. 35-40% consists of turbine and the rest consists of construction, cable and logistics costs. Therefore, non-turbine work needs to be done very well, and it needs to be studied very well, down to where it will be connected on land. These studies will be carried out in the coming years so that we can see offshore power plants in Turkiye.
We foresee that, together with the work currently being done in the Gulf region, there will be investments in offshore projects within the large investment portfolio from the Gulf. Our expectation is that after this process, certain areas on the sea will be opened to investors and put out to tender, probably with the YEKA model. There is a very important point here. The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources is trying to carry out the preliminary development processes of these projects. If the project development processes are carried out in a healthy way, projects that have been developed in a certain way and whose risk has decreased will reach the point where they can be tendered in the coming years.”
Erden also stated that the recycling of wind power plant equipment that has expired is a process that has just begun, and that a project in this field has been developed in Turkiy.e
Erden stated that in recent years, with technological developments, solutions have been put forward to recycle all of the equipment, and added that these projects should grow and become industrialized.
Source: Trthaber / Prepared by Irem Yildiz