Turkey plans $130 billion investment in energy  

In an interview with Reuters, Hilmi Guler, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, said that in order to lower the country’s dependency on imports Turkey would offer $130 billion in the future energy projects some of which are nuclear.

He said 'It's a $5 billion to $6 billion investment per year' and added that $105 billion of $130 billion has been the electricity sector. He stated this as a large amount and added “we want all the investments made by the private sector, not state companies except for the electricity transmission lines.” 

The country builds many multibillion dollar transit pipelines to transfer gas and oil from Central Asia to Europe and thus the government intends to turn Turkey into a regional energy hub. Turkey is planning to construct three nuclear power plants with a total capacity of 5,000 mW of energy by 2014 being one the biggest planned projects. 

Energy diversity: Guler's $130 billion investment plan emphasizes renewable energy, including hydro-electric power, solar energy, bio, wind and coal power. 'Even if we use all our renewable energy (which we have) we cannot meet demand in 2020,' he said, adding imports or nuclear power would solve the shortage, backed up by coal power.

'We are only using 35% of water and coal reserves so we encourage investors to consider coal and hydro opportunities as well as wind energy,' Guler said.

Turkey is also liberalizing its electricity market through the sale of 20 distribution grids and a switch to regional tariffs with a World Bank-backed plan. It’s expected to invite bidders this week for the sale of grids in three regions.

Turkey recently inaugurated a $3.9-billion, BP-led oil pipeline from Azerbaijan's Baku to the Turkish port Ceyhan.

Turkey's energy investments potential 
 

Natural gas-fired power plants have increased substantially in the last decade and now comprise more than half of the Turkey’s conventional thermal generation. Turkish authorities have worked to privatize the country’s electricity grid network, which they hope will resolve the current market problems. 

Coal-fired power stations also remain an important energy source for Turkey, and there is renewed interest in exploiting Turkey’s domestic coal resources following large natural gas price increases. 

Turkey has significant hydroelectric power resources, with more than 100 total plants and total installed hydroelectric generating capacity of 12.6 GW. 

Turkey is also developing a great deal more of hydropower plants, especially as part of the $32-billion Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) along the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. 

Under the GAP project, which is considered one of the most ambitious water development projects ever undertaken, Turkey will erect 22 dams, 19 hydroelectric power stations (with around 7.5 GW of generating capacity), and an expansive network of tunnels and irrigation canals covering 1.7 million hectares of land. 

The GAP project is overseen by the Southeastern Anatolia Project Regional Development Administration.