Turkey's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler said Wednesday that the government expected to establish an energy sector based on innovation in Turkey.
Speaking at the inauguration of the 5th Turkey Energy Forum in the largest city of Istanbul, Guler said "there is a need for radical changes in the energy sector" and that "our goal is an energy sector based on innovation."
Guler said Turkey has become an important energy player in the region as the government has made legal arrangements, including the liberalization of the oil market, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.
"We are following an energy policy based on local sources and renewable energy," he added.
"We have taken important steps in energy derived from winds, sun and water. We realize that investments in the energy sector must take place by private enterprises," Guler said.
"In the past months, small and medium-scale businesses in Turkey began to be involved in energy related projects," Guler said.
He announced that "Three new wind power plants will be operational in July in Turkey," adding that "This is an important step. Our goal is to manufacture wind turbines in Turkey. The wind turbines market has a potential of 15 billion U.S. dollars in Turkey."
"Following the energy produced by wind power stations, Turkey discovered solar energy and is ahead of Spain. Establishing solar power plants is highly costly but we try to lower costs in erecting solar energy power plants," Guler said.
The minister also said "Turkey began taking important steps in hydrogen energy."
"Turkey is about to play an important role in supplying electricity to Europe," he said, disclosing that "I believe we would be able to sign an inter-governmental agreement on this issue in the next two months."
Source:Xinhua
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