General Information
Bu expressing that one of the most significant problems of the European Union (EU) is the increase of external dependence in energy from 50 percent to 80 percent by 2035, Hasan Köktaş, the Chairman of Turkish Energy Foundation, evaluated that “This fact lays behind the Ukrainian crisis.”
During the Today and Tomorrow of Turkish Energy Sector: Turkey’s Position in Energy Markets” themed conference organized by the Young Executives and Business People Association (GYİAD), Mr. Köktaş expressed that the energy is a product with the highest recognition and said that the energy is present in each area of daily life.
Emphasizing that one of the most critical elements making energy significant is that it became the most significant means of external policy, Mr. Köktaş said, “And this carries energy to a very different point besides being a normal commodity. It is not priced by basing on the cost in no place of the world. Very open to speculation. The source of the wars, conflicts is indeed energy. It is not a final consumption product, but also a serious raw material.”
Stating that the world's population is expected to be around 8 billion in the 2030s, Mr. Köktaş said that a significant portion of this population will be from countries other than OECD countries.
Mr. Köktaş stated that the world’s economic size would be about 170 trillion dollars and the world's focus of Western Europe centered political power will rapidly shift to Asia-Pacific.
Stating that OECD countries have consumed a significant portion of the energy so far and the countries other than OECD countries will consume after that, Mr. Köktaş said that today's energy consumption will increase by 40 percent.
Giving examples for the projections made by International Energy Agency (IEA) for different scenarios, Mr. Köktaş said, "According to all of these scenarios, in the period up to year 2035, the share of the fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, coal) will relatively decrease, while the relative share of these fuels will continue to be dominant sources.”
"Societies that cannot secure their energy resources have no chance of sustainable growth”
By reminding that a revolution is experienced in 2010 concerning renewable energy, Hasan Köktaş said that now the countries started to give incentive for the renewable energy and local resources through purchase guaranteed methods called tariffs with incentive, and therefore a rapid growth trend is caught in the renewable energy.
Stating that by using shale gas mainly as of 2010 in USA, a natural gas life of over 200-300 years and an oil life of around 200 years will be achieved, Mr. Köktaş explained that new technology brings the new resources together.
Recording that according to the data of the IEA, an investment of 42.2 trillion dollars in total is assumed to be made by 2035, Mr. Köktaş said, “It is planned to reserve 17 trillion dollars of the investments to the electric sector, 9.4 trillion dollars to oil, 8.5 trillion dollars to gas sector, 0.8 trillion dollars to coal sector and 6.5 trillion dollars to the renewable energy sector.”
Taking the attention to that Turkey is ranked 21st country consuming the most energy in the world and 19th on the production side, Mr. Köktaş stated that this difference results from the import and export.
Emphasizing that while 4 countries consume the half of the world’s energy, 5 countries are at the top in the production side, Mr. Köktaş said:
“Today, the source of the problems of the Crimea, Iran, Syria, Iraq… is always the same. Societies that cannot secure their energy resources have no chance of sustainable growth. Therefore, when you analyze a number of social-political problems, you can see that such imbalances related to energy lay behind them. Turkey is in a very close position to the energy resources, but we are not among that energy-rich countries. Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Iran, Iraq… they account for half of world’s production. “
"We live historic days”
By marking the problems inside the EU, Hasan Köktaş stated that the Europe energy directive foresees to establish a joint regulatory board, and the cancellation of the free-consumer limits, in other words, everybody will determine their own supplier.
Mentioning that one of the most significant problems of EU is the increase of external dependence from 50 percent to 80 percent by 2035, Mr. Köktaş recorded:
"This reality lays behind the Ukrainian crisis. They are making meetings for 1 week with the ground ‘We have to be more independent’, but this meeting is held with USA since a couple of days. Why? America has extremely cheap and abundant natural gas because of shale gas technology, and America has not allowed the exportation of it so far. So they say to America; ´Now make this gas free as to be limited to EU countries so that we will be less dependent on Russia.’ Therefore the rules of the game are set again, the cards are mixed again. From now on, when the US permits export, there will be new formations in the world, new problems, new sources of unrest and new agreements in energy. In this sense, we are living very historical days. “
"Nuclear energy is essential for our security and development”
Saying that Turkey is getting a raw deal and Turkey is really a shining star, Mr. Köktaş added, “As of the end of 2013, we consumed 239 billion kilowatt/hour electric. The share of renewable energy is increasing proportionally. We obtain 43 percent of our total energy from natural gas, 25 percent from coal, 25 percent from hydroelectric power plant and the rest from wind. When we consider this, indeed we have a balanced energy mixture. The only way to secure them is adding the nuclear. Nuclear energy is essential for our security and development.”
Reminding that the majority of the electric was produced by the public 10 years ago, but today it is produced by the private sector, Mr. Köktaş expressed that this is a very pleasant case.
Explaining that from now on solar energy will started to be talked in Turkey, Mr. Köktaş marked that the electric consumption per person in Turkey corresponds to the half in Greece, 1/3 of Spain, and still there is a great potential of growth. - Istanbul