Turkey expects “huge” investments in renewable power in the next 10 years as growth in energy demand outpaces economic expansion, a government official said.
Turkey needs to spend $10 billion on new power generation every year until 2023 to double capacity from the current 55 gigawatts, Deputy Energy Minister Hasan Murat Mercan said today at a conference in Vienna.
“We expect huge investments in the coming years” to fund projects in wind, solar, hydropower, biomass and geothermal energy, he said. “Investing in renewables is one of the most important aspects” of supporting economic growth, he said.
Turkey, which depends on fossil-fuel imports for about 90 percent of its energy needs, has lured international investors including General Electric Co. and Siemens AG to its power industry as the regulator forecasts annual demand growth of 6.3 percent in the next two decades. The country is bucking the trend of most emerging European nations, where retail electricity consumption is trailing growth in incomes.
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