Hürriyet Daily said that the managing director of the Istanbul office of Danish wind turbine producer Vestas has called on the Turkish Energy Market Regulatory Authority to speed up the processing of licenses for wind farms.

EMRA opened the licensing process for wind farms 2 years ago. In a single day, it received 752 applications for more than 78 GW of potential wind energy capacity. The government is currently evaluating applications for 28 GW of wind energy.
Mr Ali Neyzi who was appointed as the MD of Vestas Turkey in November said that the backlog needs to be urgently addressed so that wind power can play a significant role in the country’s energy generation.

He said that “Today wind energy makes up 1% of energy sources in Turkey, which is below the country’s potential. In Denmark and Ireland, the ratio stands at 20%. Wind turbines provide 23,903 MW of energy in Germany and 16,740 MW in Spain but in Turkey a mere 433 MW.”

In May, the Turkish government announced investment plans to promote the development of up to 20,000 MW of wind energy by 2023. System operators are currently working on plans to absorb that amount of power into the grid. The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources aims to generate 20% of its electricity production from renewable resources by 2020.

Vestas opened its Istanbul office in January of this year. Several companies currently operate Vestas wind turbines in Turkey including Borusan, Sanko, Yaşar Holding, Akenerji, Güriş Holding and Aksa. The firm is also planning future projects with Borusan in Bandirma with Agaoglu in Mersin and with Tefirom in Hatay.

Mr Neyzi said that “Our target globally is to increase turnover from the current EUR 6 billion to EUR 15 billion by 2015 while at the same time growing our EBITDA by 15%.”

(Sourced from Hürriyet Daily News)