Wind energy experts request higher tariffs

Turkey should improve its current Renewable Energy Law to encourage growth for the renewable energy industry, experts speaking at the 9th Wind Energy Conference and Renewable Energy Exhibition said.

The three-day conference at the Haliç Congress Center, which saw global experts and representatives from the wind energy industry, wrapped up on Friday.

“The rate of the feed-in tariff should be increased from 0.055 euros to 0.08 euros,” said Professor Tanay Sıdkı Uyar, vice president of the World Wind Energy Association, or WWEA, speaking Wednesday.

A feed-in tariff promotes renewable energy production by guaranteeing a reasonable amount of return on each kilowatt-hour of electricity produced, creating incentives and removing investment barriers. This accelerates the convergence between energy from community level or large-scale renewable sources with large-scale conventional sources such as fossil fuels. It is paid for by energy consumers as an addition to their electricity bill.

“This is a marginal cost and creates a huge benefit, therefore it's an effective instrument,” said Kai Schlegelmilch, from the German federal ministry for environment, nature protection and nuclear safety.

“If you get the economic conditions right it's harder to argue against,” Schlegelmilch said, adding that Germany has benefited from the feed-in tariff system. “There's investment security, which creates turnover and jobs, which eventually leads to a strong lobby for the industry, which helps it mature.”

The German renewable energy industry is one of the largest in the world, creating 16 percent of Germany's energy supply and employing over 300,000 people, he said.

Turkey's current renewable energies law “could be made better” to encourage greater investment and development in renewable energy, said WWEA Secretary-General Stefan Gsanger, adding that the licensing obstacle is “more of an issue,” referring to the bottleneck of licenses since the surge of applications in November 2007.

Energy firm wants ‘favorable price’

Meanwhile, speaking to Bloomberg, the chief executive of Polat Enerji, a Turkish wind power utility half-owned by France’s EDF Energies Nouvelles, or EDF-EN, said the firm would invest more once the government passes a law bringing incentives to wind power producers.

“Depending on assage of the new law and other conditions in the investment environment, we may consider new investment beyond 2012,” Zeki Eriş said Tuesday. “We need a favorable electricity sale price so that our investments are justified.”

Producers sell electricity to wholesale buyers or the government’s power distribution grid operator TEDAŞ in a government-brokered market at around 5.5 euro-cents per kilowatt-hour, Eriş said. “This is below the levels at which wind power investments can be justified. It should be at least 7.5 euro-cents,” he told Bloomberg.

Reference: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=wind-energy-experts-request-higher-tariffs-2010-06-17