Turkey's Energy Efficiency Policy Analysis and An Overview of Developments in US, EU countries and Japan
Ebru KOLAY KADIOĞLU Durmuş KAYA Meral ALTINAY
AbstractIn our growing and developing world , as a result of the continuous development of technology , more energy intensive living standards and ever-increasing demands for luxury living, the need for energy is increasing more and more. For this reason; especially EU countries, USA, Japan and all other countries in the world in general, aimed energy saving by linking energy supply / demand to legal legislations. While energy efficiency applications ongoing in the world , as Turkey imports almost 75% of its primary energy need , it creates a heavy burden on the back of our country's economy. In our country , as a result of the fact that electricity and heating needs are met especially from natural gas and the existing energy potentials are not fully utilized, we import a large part of our energy needs. This, inevitably constitutes the main reason for our economic dependence on the outside and also constitutes the main factors that distract us from the principle of sustainability in terms of energy supply and security. For this reason; Turkey published in the Official Gazette No. 5627 dated 02/05/2007, energy efficiency main purpose of the law; is the disposal of waste energy by creating maximum energy saving models. In addition, our priority national goal in producing recoverable and / or clean energy is to promote the conscious use and consumption of energy through out the country. As a result of all the productivity increasing projects and works prepared in this context, it is aimed to reduce the energy intensity of our country and to decrease the energy cost in cumulative. For our country , the energy consumption intensity is around 39-40% for the industrial sector, and it is known that the building & housing level is 30% and above. With these figures , both the public life is affected negatively and this excess energy consumption rate destroys the natural balance and creates a risk for the whole life. As a result of the current researches of our energy intensity, it is 2 times higher than OECD countries, 2.5 times more than EU countries, 4 times more than Japan and approximately 1.5 times more than the world average, in general, for one unit energy we pay more compared to other countries. In this study, the current regulations that promote energy efficiency and related incentive projects have been examined within the framework of the energy efficiency law in our country and on the other hand, by drawing attention to the innovations introduced in both EU, USA and Japan interms of industrial efficiency, energy efficiency in the world and in our country.