Energy economics, renewable energy & its significance for the Turkish Republic and its economic development

Energy is the most important need that is used in every sector. For instance, people need energy for heating, industry and technological developments. Turkey is a country, whose industry, economy and population is rapidly growing day by day. Thus, energy demand of Turkey is perpetually increasing. Turkey is an abundant country in terms of renewable energy and subterranean resources. In our day, Turkey satisfies most of its energy needs from oil, coal, natural gas and electricity. However, these energy resources cannot renew themselves and spontaneously get depleted after a certain amount of time. Furthermore, using these types of energy has negative effects on environment and the ozone layer. For this reason, United Nations imposed some sanctions on the countries in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol cover these sanctions on greenhouse gas emissions issue. In addition to these, Turkey produces energy from renewable energy resources as well. These energy resources are green energy and therefore they have no negative effects on the environment. Moreover, renewable energy resources are types of energy, which are clean, highly productive, without fuel expenses and with short amortization. Renewable energy resources in Turkey are hydropower, solar, geothermal, wind, biomass and wave. However, the amount of energy produced from this energy resources do not satisfy Turkey's needs. Although, Turkey is a very abundant country in terms of renewable energy resources, it is a country, which imports a large part of its energy needs. Import of energy, creates another burden on current deficit, which is an important problem of Turkey. Therefore, the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Republic of Turkey should make important investments on renewable energy resources to scale down energy dependency on foreign resources. The purpose of writing this thesis is to indicate the energy potential of world, especially Turkey, and emphasizing the importance of renewable energy resources for energy and economic balances.