Assessment of Renewable Energy Resources in Line with the Targets Specified in the Turkish Strategic Plan and Application of the AHP Method

Abstract

Turkey is an energy importing country  and  relies on  coal, oil, natural gas and hydraulic for its energy. Therefore, the Turkish government has prepared strategic plans considering all alternatives including wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and other sources. One of  these, the last 2015-2019 Strategic Plan, was put into force by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources in  order to ensure and also to encourage sufficient investment to meet the growing demand for energy in Turkey. High energy demand is, is closely linked to industrialization,  population and economic growth. Thus,  recent projects also include energy efficiency measures to help reduce waste  of  energy  consumption.

The energy sector development policies of countries is a strategic area of vital importance. Although Turkey is  potentially a very rich country in terms of renewable energy sources and diversity of the country, the foreign energy  dependence is about 75%. It is clear that the need to increase the share of new and renewable energy      sources in energy production for sustainable development is necessary.

  In this study a typical application to choose an appropriate renewable energy resource  in Turkey  using the analytic hierarchy process  is carried out.  The software of Expert Choice which supports  AHP has provided data to be analyzed statistically. It is indicated  that wind energy is in the first place and  biomass takes  the last place.

Keywords- AHP Method ;   renewable resources ; strategic plan;  sustainable development ; Turkey.