Turkey needs to use more coal, water resources to meet its soaring energy demand: Erdoğan

ADANA

AA photo

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said Turkey needs to use its coal and water resources more effectively as the country is unlikely to meet its rising energy demand through just renewable resources. 

“It is not possible for Turkey to meet its soaring energy demand by just solar or wind power. We need to use our coal and water resources much more effectively,” he said April 24 at the opening ceremony of Enerjisa’s Tufanbeyli Coal-Fired Plant in the southern province of Adana. 

Anti-coal, anti-hydro power and anti-nuclear power protests from environmentalist groups “should not mislead anyone,” he said. 

“Do not listen to them. We need to do what is needed,” he said. 

Erdoğan said more than half of the $63 billion trade deficit was due to the country’s huge energy bill last year. 

“Among all OECD countries, Turkey has seen the highest rise in energy demand. We will need to make around $110 billion in investments in energy in the next decade, according to estimates,” he said. 

Erdoğan also said he was against the use of imported coal reserves as such transactions negatively impacted Turkey’s current account gap. 

“We have local coal reserves. Rather than using, for example, five-point imported coal, we can use 10-point local reserves, thus pushing down the current account deficit. This step must be taken,” Erdoğan said. 

The president also said there were 444 active nuclear power plants in 135 countries around the world, with 62 more on the way. Turkey is building or plans to construct three nuclear plants.