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A new report reviews Turkey’s energy sector for the past 20 years with milestones achieved and challenges remaining.

The Dora Geothermal Energy Plant in southwestern Turkey provides power, which is renewable, sustainable and environmentally friendly because it causes no pollution.

“Currently power plants generating electricity from geothermal energy resources have a capacity of around 100 MW.  We think this installed capacity will be raised to 500 – 1,000 MW in the next five or ten years,” says the plant’s general manager, Murat Haluk Tufekcioglu.

Such increased reliance on greener energy is just one of several positive effects that reforms to Turkey’s energy sector have had over the last two decades, according to a World Bank review.

The study -- entitled “Turkey's Energy Transition - Reform Milestones and Challenges” -- shows that Turkey achieved energy security in a high economic growth environment with rapidly increasing energy needs through a variety of inter-linked measures including electricity, gas, renewable energy and energy efficiency legislation.

" Currently power plants generating electricity from geothermal energy resources have a capacity of around 100 MW. We think this installed capacity will be raised to 500 – 1,000 MW in the next five or ten years "

Murat Haluk Tufekcioglu

General Manager, Dora Geothermal Energy Plant

The energy reforms have attracted more than 800 private companies into Turkey’s electricity market, and led investors to take over the entire power distribution system in 2008-2013.

“We have financed hydro power plants, wind farms, geothermal plants biomass and very lately solar energy,” says Orhan Beskok, Secretary General of TSKB, Turkey’s first privately owned development and investment bank.

“Our total commitments to these projects are in the range of 2.5 billion dollars,” he says.

Other energy reform results include the establishment of an energy sector regulatory authority, energy price reform, the creation of a functional electricity market and large-scale introduction of natural gas, and restructuring of state-owned energy enterprises.

"Through privatization and new investment, the share of the state has declined from nearly 100 percent to 30 percent,” says Budak Dilli, a former Director of Turkey’s Energy Ministry.

“We were aiming from the beginning to decrease the share of the state and we achieved that,” he says.

Despite the achievements, however, the World Bank report shows challenges remain ahead of Turkey in the country’s quest to meet the energy demands of its 80-million people.

Among these are the unfinished liberalization of gas and electricity markets, and issues linked to energy sector governance.

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*Note: The report on Turkey’s Energy Transition was supported by the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP)”