Energy supply and renewable energy in Istanbul from the perspective of local administrators and business people: Opportunities and constraints

Global climate change increasingly threatens the ecosystem. One crucial reason for this unfavorable outcome has been the increasing energy demand, emerging as a result of industrialization and urbanization, is met from fossil resources. Combating climate change, therefore, makes the use of renewable energy resources a current issue. Thus, this thesis aims to answer the following questions: from which resources the energy needs of İstanbul are met; what is the share and potential of renewable energy in meeting the energy needs of İstanbul; what should be done to increase the share of renewable energy. Cities are both the causes and the victims of climate change. Likewise, İstanbul has been facing problems arising from climate change. As an energy-importing city, İstanbul cannot benefit from renewable resources sufficiently at its current state. The lack of studies in the literature that develops policy proposals to increase the share of renewable in energy supply methods of İstanbul is one of the motivations for this study. The analysis of the current state at national and local levels has shown that there is a huge gap between the potential and the current state regarding the use of renewable energy. The share of renewable energy in the current energy supply of İstanbul is 0,2 %. With an aim of developing policy proposals to increase this share, a method of data collection based on face-to-face interviews with representatives from public (municipality) and private sector has been adopted. In the light of the interviews and the literature review, the thesis has found that in order to increase the share of renewable in the energy supply of İstanbul, implementation of regulations and plans prioritizing the needs of the city appear as crucial. It has been also observed that making action plans in line with the national energy policies and making legal regulations that will create the necessary environment for the coordination of central and local governments are extremely important. However, the difficulty in accessing reliable data came to the fore both in the statements of the sector representatives and in the secondary resources reviewed for this thesis. It has been evaluated that measuring the renewable energy potential of İstanbul and sharing this information with the public will contribute to the development of the renewable energy sector in Turkey. It has also been found out that the infrastructure and the electric supply system of the city should be developed to support new technologies and resources.