The United Kingdom’s Renewable Energy Experience Addressed During the conference, an eco-friendly hybrid double-decker bus of the GREAT Campaign was displayed in front of the TEPAV building.
ANKARA –The renewable energy experiences of the United Kingdom were shared with a conference at TEPAV on Tuesday, 12 November 2013.
A conference, titled “Green is GREAT: UK-Turkey Cooperative Dialogue on Wind, Solar, and Clean Coal Technology,” was organized jointly by the British Embassy in Ankara and TEPAV. During the conference and in the context of the GREAT Campaign launched to enhance economic and political relationships between the UK and Turkey, an eco-friendly, hybrid, red double-decker bus was parked in front of the TEPAV building.
Delivering opening remarks, TEPAV Economic Studies Analyst Ozan Acar talked about the commonalities of the energy outlooks of the UK and Turkey:
Both Turkey and the UK are dependent on energy imports, with dependency rates of 39% and 72% percent, respectively. The current account deficit to GDP ratios as of 2013 were 3.4% in the UK and 6.6% in Turkey.
Both countries aim to increase the share of renewable sources in total energy supply. Currently, the shares are around 3% in both of the countries; the UK aims to increase the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption to 15% by 2020 and Turkey to 30% by 2023.
About one-third of the energy supply comes from coal in both countries.
Explaining that although Turkey had considerably rich coal reserves, electricity generation by imported coal was prevalent, with an increased from 0.5% to 7.3% in a decade. He said, “licensing power plants that run on imported coal will deepen Turkey’s import dependency in energy. The spread of clean coal technology can enable Turkey to utilize its coal resources more efficiently.”
Janet Douglas, Deputy Head of Mission of the British Embassy in Ankara, stressed that the energy sector was a priority area for enhancing bilateral relations between Turkey and the UK and talked about the works carried out on energy efficiency, forest management, and environmental finance.
Following the opening speeches, experts and officials gave information about wind energy, solar energy, and clean coal practices in the UK. Bekir Turhan Çorbacıoğlu of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey, Department of Renewable Energy spoke about renewable energy and clean coal practices in Turkey. The afternoon session of the conference continued with discussions.
