Speaking at the panel, Ahmet Özkaya stated that the world is going through a serious energy crisis and pointed out that energy supply security for Türkiye should be addressed as a national security problem. Explaining that Türkiye is a net importer of energy commodities, Özkaya said, "We pay an annual average of over 70 billion dollars for energy imports. Therefore, we have put forward a set of policies to achieve climate targets, strengthen supply security and reduce our dependence on foreign sources. In this context, it is both the cheapest and easiest energy efficiency. We can make serious savings by investing very little here."
FIRST COMPETITION IN APRIL 2027
Explaining that offshore wind power plants will be implemented within the scope of renewable energy targets, Özkaya said, "We have been mastering the process from equipment production to all kinds of maintenance and repair on land since 2002. Our country's capability is very high. Offshore is a new field and we want to invest in this field. We want to include at least 6 gigawatt offshore wind power plants in our portfolio by 2040 to produce wind energy in the open sea." Stating that the greatest potential in this field is in the Aegean, Özkaya stated that they identified four points. Explaining that they have created a draft specification, Özkaya noted that they will announce the technical specification for the 1 gigawatt competition by the end of this month. Explaining that they are planning to hold the competition in April 2027, Özkaya said, "This is the first time they are organizing a competition in this field.
We do not see this as wind energy. This is also an offshore wind infrastructure investment. Therefore, it will make a serious contribution to the Turkish industry. That's why we had many meetings with local equipment manufacturers here. "Our investors who won the tender will both measure the seabed and commission a capacity of 1 gigawatt," he said. Explaining that Türkiye has gained serious knowledge in the deep sea with its oil exploration activities, Özkaya noted that they aim to achieve similar experience in offshore.
1.5 TIMES THE CAPACITY WILL BE BUILT
Explaining that Türkiye has completed a transformation in renewable energy that started with hydraulics in the last 15 years, Özkaya said, "We increased the hydraulics, which was 12-13 gigawatts in 2005, to over 30 gigawatts today. In the last 10 years, we increased our power in wind and solar energy, which was almost zero, to over 40 gigawatts. In our 2040 vision, we planned our total wind and solar energy alone to be 175 gigawatts. Today, Türkiye has 127 gigawatts." We expect almost 1.5 times of our total installed capacity of gigawatts to come from wind and solar alone. This is actually the most important goal of the basic policies we aim to achieve.
"Because it is both clean energy and an energy that reduces our dependence on foreign sources," he said. Explaining that they first announced this target as 120 gigawatts, Özkaya noted that they increased it to 175 gigawatts within the scope of COP31. Özkaya said, "For this target, we need to commission at least 10 gigawatts of wind and solar energy investments almost every year. A serious investment financing is required here, and at the same time, in order to accelerate these investment processes, the permit processes must be minimized."
SMALL MODULAR REACTORS WILL BE MADE
Pointing out that integrating nuclear into the system is a must in order to achieve net zero emission targets, Özkaya said, "We are continuing the Akkuyu process here, but it is insufficient. We need to add a capacity of 10 gigawatts, at least as much as one Akkuyu, by 2040. In this context, we need to integrate small modular reactors into our system."
NATIONAL MINES VISION IS ON THE ROAD
Explaining that serious progress has been made regarding oil and natural gas exploration, Özkaya said, "By 2040, we should be able to explore for oil and natural gas with our own national resources. This is an area that we see as very important in terms of energy independence. Our work continues for this." Stating that the last leg of the 2040 National Energy vision document is mines, Özkaya said, "Mines are indispensable for this work. We think that the demand will change significantly as we go to 2040. Renewable energy investments, electric vehicles, data centers... Time shows us how important the existing minerals are. In this respect, mines are very important and indispensable.
We need to do serious work on this. That's why we want to announce something similar to National Energy 2040 to the whole world as National Mines 2040." Explaining that permit periods in mining should be facilitated, Özkaya said, "We are at the top in mineral diversity, but we are inadequate in exploration and extraction. Therefore, we need to speed up and facilitate the process here. Another issue is that we need to implement facilities that process rare earth elements. Eti Maden has serious investments at this point. For example, within the framework of our 2040 vision, we have a target of 63 megawatts in wind. Permanent magnets are used extensively in this equipment. We are working to have this produced in Türkiye. "We need to start a serious exploration and production process in metallic mines," he said.
Fighting the climate crisis should spread throughout society
Kalyon Holding CEO Mustafa Koçar stated that they took part as the carbon offset partner of COP31 and said, "There is a certain amount of greenhouse gas emissions due to the transportation and accommodation of the participants within the scope of the summit. According to our rough calculation, the impact of the COP31 organization on greenhouse gas emissions is 400 thousand tons. We have passed the added value we produced in our Karapınar project in Konya through international certification. "Now, with this certification, the organization has been implemented without harming the environment," he said. Stating that Kalyon's solar energy investment in Konya has the capacity to meet all the electricity needs of a city with a population of 6 million, he said, "We are preventing 1.7 million tons of carbon emissions here." Explaining that they will commission a second power plant in Karapınar, Koçar said, "We will have put a capacity of nearly 500 megawatts into operation in December. We contribute to energy supply security with every investment we make. "We will continue to grow here."
Explaining that 1.2 gigawatts of wind storage capacity is currently in the licensing phase, Koçar noted that engineering work is continuing. Pointing out that the fight against the climate crisis should be spread throughout the society, Koçar said, "We have work to provide social contribution within Kalyon. As Kalyon Foundation, we planted more than 10 million saplings. Kalyon Kültür is also the place where culture and art meet. Here we have four exhibitions on the theme of zero waste and environment. "With all these, we are trying to spread environmental sensitivity to the general society," he said.
THEY CAPTURE CARBON IN THE AIR AND STORAGE IT
Rönesans Board Member and Energy Group President Emre Hatem stated that they made investments in green energy production and energy storage and noted that they partnered with Total Energy two years ago. Hatem said, "We currently have an energy portfolio of 1,400 megawatts. We have 1,000 megatwatts of renewable energy conversion. 400 megawatts of which are battery storage investments. 800 of the 1,000 megawatts are in wind. 650 megawatts of our portfolio are currently in operation. 150 megawatts are under construction. We will complete this next year. The projects we have are wind power plants with storage.
"We will start investing in the first storage wind power plant soon," he said. Explaining that they received capacity from YEKA3 tenders in Türkiye, Hatem noted that they completed three projects in 30 months and put them into operation. Explaining that they commissioned a hybrid solar power plant simultaneously with HEPPs, Hatem said, "We are building the largest unlicensed wind power plant in Türkiye.
We are building a 35 megawatt wind power plant in Izmir to meet the energy needs of Rönesans real estate. The energy produced from here will meet the energy needs of our shopping malls. "We will put this investment into operation at the end of the year," he said. Stating that there are 130 megawatt wind power plants in Osmaniye, Hatem said that they renewed some of the turbines there. Hatem said, "Türkiye has around 5 thousand wind turbines. Their average size is 3 megawatts. The new turbines produced today are 8-10 megawatts. Therefore, it is possible to produce more energy in the same field by replacing old stands with new ones. Within the scope of the tribune renovation project in Osmaniye, we will remove part of it and install a new one and increase our capacity from 130 megawatts to 200 megawatts. Energy production will also approximately double.
"We think that such projects will increase," he said. Stating that battery investments are continuing, Hatem stated that they will put them into operation in the coming period. Hatem, who also gave information about Total Energy's carbon capture project, noted that this can also be done in Türkiye. Hatem explained the following: "Within the scope of the carbon capture project, carbon gas is liquefied in certain industrial facilities in Europe and brought to the facility in Norway by ships and stored. They capture the carbon dioxide gas that will be released into the air and store it so that it does not mix with the atmosphere. The capacity of the project is 1.5 million tons and will increase to 5 million tons next year. We can do something similar in Türkiye. However, polluting the air in Europe costs money, industrialists pay 100 euros per ton. European investor, can I manage this cheaper if I store it as an alternative? They capture carbon dioxide and liquefy it. In order to do this in Türkiye, the cost of pollution must first be deducted. "Afterwards, I think our industrialists will make similar investments."
