Renewable energy

Turkey ranks among the top five countries in Europe with its large-scale production plants for wind turbine equipment, the country's industry and technology minister said on Nov. 25.

Turkey hopes to make its domestic industry more competitive in producing both onshore and offshore wind turbine equipment, Mustafa Varank said at a virtual session of the Turkish Wind Energy Congress.

Environment Minister Kostis Hatzidakis has decided to cut the red tape on renewal energy projects by dispensing some of them from environmental impact assessments and simplifying the approval procedures for others.

The aim of these decisions is to reduce the time from the submission of a plan to implement a renewable energy project to its approval to two years.

Electric power 0company Public Power Corporation (PPC) is moving toward boosting energy production from renewable energy and ridding itself of its historical reliance on inefficient and highly polluting lignite, also known as brown coal.

The Energy and Water Regulatory Commision is to create and maintain an internet platform for comparing offers for electricity supply, the amendments to the Energy Act related to liberalization of the energy market adopted by the Bulgarian National Assembly at second reading envisage. 

The government is considering a €0.12/kWh feed-in tariff for PV installations with a generation capacity of up to 5 kW and of €0.10 for 5-30 kW systems. If implemented, the scheme will come into force next month.

Turkey has broken a new record in generating electricity through domestic and renewable sources, the energy minister has said.

"Our national energy [production] continues to be renewed as our investments bear fruits," Fatih Dönmez said in a tweet on May 26.

Responding to increased demand as a result of nosediving global oil prices, the Greek government is planning a legislative amendment that will extend the period during which the sale of heating oil is permitted to May 15 from the customary deadline of April 30.

Turkey added 687 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity to reach 8,056 MW in total wind capacity in 2019, according to the Turkish Wind Energy Association's (TUREB) report released on March 25.

According to the data, wind energy provided about 8 million Turkish homes with electricity last year.

Turkey's temporary suspension of the requirement to include ethanol in gasoline will provide an additional 20,000 cubic meter ethanol capacity for the production of disinfectants and colognes in the country.

Cologne is a traditional ethanol-based scented disinfectant in Turkey.

Public Power Corporation (PPC) is in close cooperation with Germany's RWE, one of the world's biggest companies in the renewable energy sources sector, both for the development of the ambitious plan the Greek utility has drafted for its expansion into RES and for the government's implementation of a decarbonization plan.