ENERGY NEWS - TURKEY
Turkey to Hold Mini Renewable YEKA Tenders in 1Q20

Turkey will announce details with a few weeks on mini renewable energy resources zone (YEKA) tenders that will be held in the first quarter of 2020, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez said Monday.

During the 10th Turkey Energy Summit in Antalya, Donmez said that Turkey's energy sector is experiencing significant changes through privatization and its focus on renewable and domestic production.

He explained that the public sector holds 20% of the total installed power capacity and 15% of total production, but added that privatization would continue for state-owned small hydroelectric power plants.

In the coming decade, the YEKA tenders will also play an important role in expanding the country's renewable capacity.

Turkey plans to boost its wind and solar capacity by 10,000 megawatts (MW) each over the coming decade through YEKA tenders, he said.

The share of domestic and renewable energy resources for electricity generation will be more than 50%, he added. This share has already increased due to the abundance of rainfall last year, but renewable energy plants that were commissioned also contributed to this rise, he explained. Donmez said the share of LNG in the global gas market has increased since the beginning of the 2000's.

"It has a significant share of the total gas market especially in island nations where using LNG is a technical necessity," he said.

However, this global trend is also extending to Turkey, which has acquired four LNG terminals that serves the country's needs during peak consumption periods.

"Turkey is a lucky country due to its location because it is advantageous both in terms of proximity to pipelines and proximity to LNG producing countries," he explained.

Turkey has technically seen the LNG gasification capacity of 30 billion cubic meters per year. "Our annual natural gas consumption is 50 billion cubic meters. LNG can meet half of this thanks to LNG infrastructure investments. We have reduced the share of pipe gas, which was over 90% in the past to 50%," he stressed.

Source: AA

Public, Private Sectors to Jointly Invest $10B in Energy Efficiency in 10 Years

Turkey's public and private sectors will jointly invest $10 billion in energy efficiency in the next 10 years, the Turkish energy and natural resources minister said.

Energy efficiency is a high-yield sector, and the $10 billion investments will generate $30 billion savings until 2033, Fatih Donmez stressed during the 10th Istanbul Finance Summit (IFS'19) that began in Istanbul yesterday.

"Energy efficiency investments totaled $837 million in 2017 and $518 million in 2018," Donmez said.

He also noted that Turkey saw renewable energy investments of around $16 billion in the last five years.

"In the last five years, $4.8 billion investment was made in solar power, $4.3 billion in wind farms, $6 billion in hydroelectric plants, $1 billion in geothermal and $430 million in biomass," the minister highlighted.

The energy sector has changed significantly in the last 20 years, the public dominance in the sector gave its place to the private sector, Donmez explained.

Turkey has made efforts to achieve digital transformation in the fields of energy substructure, mining technologies, nuclear energy and hydrocarbon technologies, he stressed.

"We aim to make Turkey a serious brand in this area," the minister underlined.

Recently, there are several foreign-based financing models, especially from Europe and the Far East Asia, such as regional development programs, investment banks, agencies and grants, for funding the energy sector, he said.

"Turkey attracts these funds with its strong economy and political stability," Donmez added.

He underlined that every economy may face difficult periods, the important thing is how quickly the country gets rid of these shocks. "In recent years, Turkey's economy has passed a serious test of endurance and I am sure that the coming period will show more positive developments," Donmez added.

Source: Daily Sabah

ENERGY NEWS - WORLD
Battery Storage Set to Quadruple by 2025

Worldwide demand for battery energy storage is set to jump to four-times 2015 levels by 2025, according to independent market assessments ordered by the Consortium for Battery Innovation (CBI). That jump from 100,000 to 400,000 megawatt hours (MWh)  in a decade will be partially fuelled by the transition to electric transportation. However, the group notes that demand for all battery technologies resulting from the massive increases in renewables and related infrastructure.

The report further notes that electricity grids and renewables drive demand for reliable, longer-lasting and safe high-performance batteries. These are goals which can be achieved more economically than was possible before, with increases in battery lifecycles in lead batteries capable of being increased more than five times, thanks to recent advances. The report suggests that improved battery cycle life would help to significantly reduce operating costs, which it claims are “a key parameter for utility and renewable energy installations”.

As a result, CBI says a greater number of clean energy storage projects would be able to be installed, providing reliable and affordable electricity.

Dr. Alistair Davidson, director of the CBI, said: “We’re in the midst of a revolution in battery technologies as governments look to accelerate their move to low carbon energy sources. We need a range of high-performance batteries for different products and applications to meet this growing trend.

“Our technology innovation plan looks at a short-term boost in battery performance. But we’re also focusing on the next big leap in advanced batteries over the next decade as new forms of lead battery technology come to market.”

Source: Smart Energy International

California PG&E Blackouts: What Electric-Car Makers Have to Say About the Situation

For California residents, wildfires are becoming a new normal. One of the state's largest utility companies, PG&E, has initiated wide-ranging blackouts to protect against the possibility of a fire that could quickly turn into a statewide emergency. The practice, called a "public safety power shutoff," began wednesday, as high winds and hot temperatures move over the area, with some 500,000 electricity customers affected across the Bay Area. Up to 800,000 people may feel the effects throughout the blackouts.

When power will come back on is unclear. For electric vehicle owners, that poses a bit of a problem, since their cars' main source of power comes from electric charging stations at home or at public stations. Without a source of power, EVs won't get terribly far.

Ahead of the blackout on wednesday, Tesla pushed a notification to owners' cars urging them to fully charge their car ahead of the blackout in their area. In part, the notification said the blackout "may affect power to charging options." The automaker continued, "As always, your touchscreen will display live statuses of Superchargers in your area."

Tesla did not respond to Roadshow's request for comment when we asked for additional information about advice it may have for Model 3, Model S and Model X owners. In response to the notification, Tesla owners took to social media to share photos of massive lines at nearby Supercharger stations.

Audi told Roadshow that E-Tron owners typically drive, on average, 48 miles per day, which leaves plenty of battery reserve in the case of a blackout. With the figure, E-Tron drivers, on average, need to fully charge their cars every four days.

Still, the company checked with Electrify America (a Volkswagen Group subsidiary) and the charging station operator said there are no stations affected by the PG&E blackouts at this time. The Audi E-Tron's in-car navigation will show which Electrify America stations are currently occupied or not available, though the company said it's working to learn what a station would display if it did not have power.

If that's not enough, Audi also offers seven days of Silvercar service to all owners, including those who left the dealership with an E-Tron. "It would allow customers to drive an Audi from Silvercar at no additional cost they needed to get through a difficult period caused by a blackout," a representative told Roadshow via email.

Toyota, which currently does not sell a fully electric car, did comment on the benefits of the Prius Prime. A representative told Roadshow via phone that situations such as the safety power shutoff underscore the benefits of a plug in hybrid since the Prius Prime can also run its internal combustion engine, which takes gasoline.

However it's important to note that even in a blackout, gasoline stations cannot operate, either. Where the problem gets trickier is an EV's range limitations compared with a tank of gasoline, and the sheer abundance of fuel pumps compared with charging stations.

Roadshow also reached out to General Motors for comment on the situation, but the automaker did not immediately respond. Nissan also did not immediately respond for this story. The Chevy Bolt EV and Nissan Leaf are two additional mass-market electric cars on sale.

Source: CNET

The Limits of Clean Energy

If the world isn’t careful, renewable energy could become as destructive as fossil fuels.

The conversation about climate change has been blazing ahead in recent months. Propelled by the school climate strikes and social movements like Extinction Rebellion, a number of governments have declared a climate emergency, and progressive political parties are making plans—at last—for a rapid transition to clean energy under the banner of the Green New Deal.

This is a welcome shift, and we need more of it. But a new problem is beginning to emerge that warrants our attention. Some proponents of the Green New Deal seem to believe that it will pave the way to a utopia of “green growth.” Once we trade dirty fossil fuels for clean energy, there’s no reason we can’t keep expanding the economy forever.

This narrative may seem reasonable enough at first glance, but there are good reasons to think twice about it. One of them has to do with clean energy itself.

The phrase “clean energy” normally conjures up happy, innocent images of warm sunshine and fresh wind. But while sunshine and wind is obviously clean, the infrastructure we need to capture it is not. Far from it. The transition to renewables is going to require a dramatic increase in the extraction of metals and rare-earth minerals, with real ecological and social costs.

We need a rapid transition to renewables, yes—but scientists warn that we can’t keep growing energy use at existing rates. No energy is innocent. The only truly clean energy is less energy.

In 2017, the World Bank released a little-noticed report that offered the first comprehensive look at this question. It models the increase in material extraction that would be required to build enough solar and wind utilities to produce an annual output of about 7 terawatts of electricity by 2050. That’s enough to power roughly half of the global economy. By doubling the World Bank figures, we can estimate what it will take to get all the way to zero emissions—and the results are staggering: 34 million metric tons of copper, 40 million tons of lead, 50 million tons of zinc, 162 million tons of aluminum, and no less than 4.8 billion tons of iron.
In some cases, the transition to renewables will require a massive increase over existing levels of extraction. For neodymium—an essential element in wind turbines—extraction will need to rise by nearly 35 percent over current levels. Higher-end estimates reported by the World Bank suggest it could double.

Source: Foreign Policy

German Govt Adopts Major Climate Law, Set of Measures to Meet 2030 Targets

The German government cabinet has adopted the country’s first framework climate law and a detailed programme of measures to reach national and European targets for 2030. Against the backdrop of climate action protests by the Extinction Rebellion movement, ministers signed off on the package in Berlin. It lays out the details for the general plan Chancellor Angela Merkel’s grand coalition had decided on three weeks before. Energy industry association BDEW criticised the plans as “not thought through and not coherent with the objectives of the energy transition”, and environmental NGOs said they are insufficient to reach climate targets. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government cabinet has adopted Germany’s first Climate Action Law and a detailed program of measures to reach climate targets in all sectors of the economy. With today’s decisions, the coalition of Merkel’s Conservatives and the Social Democrats fleshed out the general package it presented with a long-anticipated decision on 20, September. The measures now have to be translated into legislation and decided by the federal parliament over the coming months and well into next year.

“Today is an important day for climate action in Germany,” said environment minister Svenja  Schulze at a press conference in Berlin. “However, it does not mark a final point, it’s a new beginning. I will only be satisfied when the greenhouse gas emissions actually go down sufficiently.” Economy minister Peter Altmaier called today's decisions "a central step towards reaching our climate targets without damaging the competitiveness of our industry." He said while the energy sector and industry were well on track, buildings and transport still had some catching up to do.

The coalition’s climate package now consists of (A) the framework Climate Action Law, which enshrines the 2030 greenhouse gas emissions target into law, assigns sector-specific annual emissions budgets and says Germany will “pursue” greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050.

And (B) the Climate Action Programme 2030, which sets out measures to reach 2030 climate targets in each sector, such as a CO2 price for transport and buildings, a slew of incentives and regulatory actions such as efficiency standards. Schulze called the programme “the binding to-do list which describes in detail what the cabinet will get on its way over the coming weeks”.

The government adopted the two climate policy pieces as hundreds of protester from the Extinction Rebellion movement blocked key streets in the political centre of Germany’s capital Berlin, with many activists gathering in front of Merkel’s chancellery.

Stefan Kapferer, head of utility association BDEW, called the plans “not thought through and not coherent with the objectives of the energy transition”, while environmental NGOs said Germany would miss its targets with the proposed measures. 

After a prolonged boom in renewable energy, Germany's planned transition to a low-carbon, nuclear-free economy – the famed Energiewende – has slowed in recent years. The country is set to miss key national energy transition targets in 2020 – among them reducing greenhouse emissions by 40 percent – and the governing parties CDU/CSU and SPD have now put their focus on reaching the 2030 goals. Merkel set up the so-called climate cabinet – a group of ministers with responsibilities in key climate policy fields – earlier this year to decide necessary legislation. The group presented a general strategy on 20 September,  and the government must now mould the details presented today into legislation and regulations.

Source: Clean Energy Wire

REPORT OF THE WEEK

Financing the Energy Transition in Turkey

The pressing need to limit the adverse eff ects of climate change and ensure sustainable growth calls for accelerating global energy transition. The key developments that support energy transition for a sustainable future are the ongoing decline in renewable energy costs, improvements in energy efficiency, widespread electrifi cation powered with renewables, the spread of “smart” technologies, the continuous nature of technological innovation, and inclusive policies that provide direction to all of these developments.

Please click here to read the full report.

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