Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

As part of the 31st Energy Efficiency Week, “The 3rd National Energy Efficiency Forum and Fair” was held at the WOW Istanbul Hotel. Speaking at the opening of the event, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized that at a time of global crisis, Turkey has managed to achieve 9.6% growth and has grown while the private sector has broken records for investment, production and employment.

Stating that these successes aren’t achieved for free, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that one of the main problems they’ve faced is energy efficiency.

Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Even though our natural resources are limited we act like we have unlimited energy and disregard energy conservation and therefore, lose. I’ll say it openly; we are using up our stores. Energy is already expensive as is. There is no apparent reason for a decrease of fossil fuel prices in the coming term.  The smartest thing to do is to increase efficiency and decreasing costs.”

- “We are handing off the sweat of our brow to foreigners”

Stating that the biggest complain they receive is regarding that the input costs are too high, Hisarcıklıoğlu said:

“We want to be producing on equal footing with our competitors. We want to be given a chance to play ball on the same field as our opponents. But I will say it clearly; there are things that we must do as industrialists. Sadly we are still using twice the energy as our European counterparts to produce the same goods. Turkey consumes energy equivalent to 270 kilo petroleum to produce an added value of 1,000 Dollars. Germany consumes 160 kilo petroleum worth of energy for the same amount of production. The savings made stay in the pockets of the German citizens and industrialists.”

In a study undertaken by the Turkey Economic Policy Research Foundation’s (TEPAV), the soil-cement sector grew by 3.3% while its energy consumption increased by 14%, the chemicals sector grew by 2.3% while its consumption grew by 4.5% said Hisarcıklıoğlu and went on, “As industrialists we give away the money we earn, the sweat of our brow, to foreigners. We give away a significant amount of our winnings away to foreign countries that export energy to us. We must take steps as industrialists to change this situation. By making the necessary investments, we must use newer equipment which requires less energy to perform the same production. We must make this transition quickly as energy conserved is energy produced and actually the cheapest energy. You make money as you conserve energy. There’s ‘free money’ in this.”

- Investments provide returns in the short term

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that there is support for projects which will increase energy conservation for up to 1 million TL by the Ministry of Energy, saying that there are projects which provide returns in 6-9 months without support investments.

Urging industrialists to not waste their energy and spend the savings from this on projects to increase efficiency, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that energy efficiency would benefit both the industrialist and the country.

Hisarcıklıoğlu, stating that Turkey acquires 80% of its energy from foreign sources, said, “You buy your energy from abroad, pay foreign currency and waste it. This is unacceptable. Especially in a culture which views waste as forbidden, this waste will have a reckoning both in this world and the next. We will lose our earnings in this world and we will have to account for the resources we wasted in the next.”

Stating that while making energy production more efficient, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that they must use technology which will keep the damage to the environment to a minimum. In a country where renewable energy sources like wind power and hydroelectricity are abundant, they should work to both preserve nature, increase energy security and decrease dependence on foreign sources, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that Turkey is late in terms of nuclear energy and should move to provide diversification in electricity supply by adding nuclear energy to the list.

Saying that it is projected that Turkey’s petroleum and natural gas import bill for the next 10 years will exceed 500 billion Dollars, Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that every investment made on local resources will decrease dependence on foreign sources and the size of this bill.

- Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız stated that there are those who oppose hydroelectric power plants and went on to say, “Energy, of course, is one of the natural resources of Turkey. As friends of the environment we will mobilize these resources. Not through destruction, there are some contractors who work too destructively sometimes. I do not support them. Therefore we need to support all these investments which are environment friendly.

Minister Yıldız said, “Our main goal in energy efficiency is to save up to 20% of the current consumption by the year 2023. This is not an unrealistic or impossible to reach figure. The latest data shows that we should be able to enact 20% savings.”
​