European Commission: Turkey makes good progress on renewables, energy efficiency

Turkey is moderately prepared in the area of energy, according to the European Commission’s latest report on the country in view of EU enlargement.

Good progress has been made on security of supply, renewable energy, and energy efficiency, the European Commission said.

In the coming year, Turkey should in particular:

• adopt legislation in line with the Euratom acquis, clarifying structural, staffing and coordination issues in nuclear energy regulation and guarantee the independence of the newly established nuclear energy regulator;
• deepen gas market reform by setting up a legally binding plan and a timetable for the unbundling of activities and establishing transparent, cost-reflective and non-discriminatory pricing in the gas sector;
• roll out the implementation of the national energy efficiency action plan (NEEAP), in particular the envisaged national energy efficiency financing mechanism.

The report notes that the state-owned electricity generation company (EÜAŞ), responsible for more than a third of Turkey’s power generation capacity, took over the Turkish electricity trading and contracting Company (TETAŞ) in July 2018. This has made EÜAŞ responsible for signing energy purchase and sales agreements as well as importing and exporting electricity.

Turkey’s progress in the renewables sector has been good, according to the report. Three large tenders in photovoltaics (PV) and onshore and offshore wind energy generation were launched based on a model applying a fixed feed-in tariff and guaranteed investment in domestic manufacturing and R&D for a fixed period of time. These tenders failed to attract sufficient investor interest, however, and are expected to be extended or relaunched in 2019.