Turkey aims for renewable energy to reach 20,000 MW

The Salman Electricity Energy Plant, with a capacity of 27.5 megawatts, was established in Sarpıncık in the Karaburun district of İzmir by FİNA Energy with a ceremony attended by Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız.

Yıldız announced that the ministry is targeting to increase renewable energy production to over 20,000 megawatts and that it will increase the use of natural energy resources to decrease Turkey's natural gas imports. He also said with the activation of new wind power plants, natural gas imports have already decreased by $850 million when compared to last year. "This is a major leap. Therefore, we recommend Turkish investors invest more in the production of energy through coal, wind, solar, hydraulic and geothermal resources," Yıldız said.

Underlining that four months ago on one Sunday, 10.5 percent of energy consumed in the whole of Turkey was obtained from the electricity produced by wind power plants, Yıldız said that clean energy production also decreases carbon dioxide emissions. The CEO of FİNA Enerji Holding, Murat Özyeğin also said within the last three years they have invested in wind energy plants with a capacity of 244.7 megawatts and are willing to increase the total capacity to 500 megawatts. He said Turkey had saved $6 million from natural gas imports as a result of their investments in wind power plants and that as a company they will continue to assume a leading role in geothermal and solar energies.