CHAPTER 6
Byzantine Energy Politics: The Complex Tale
of Low Carbon Energy in Turkey
Oksan Bayulgen
A Dangerous Fossil Fuel Dependency
Turkey is addicted to fossil fuels with major implications to the country’s
economic, geostrategic, and environmental well-being. About 87% of the
burgeoning energy demand in the country is met with natural gas, oil,
and coal (28, 29, and 30%, respectively). In power generation, the share of
fossil fuels is less but still very significant with 68% in 2018. Natural gas by
far has played the biggest role in the country since the end of the 1990s.
Turkey has been the second country, after China, in terms of natural gas
demand percentage growth, growing by 522% from 188,070 terra joules
(TJ) in 1999 to 1,170,038 TJ in 2017. 1 Meanwhile, coal has become
natural gas’ biggest competitor as Turkey accelerated in recent years its
reliance on coal for all sectors. Including all coal plants proposed and
under construction, Turkey has the largest coal power plant development
program in the world, outside China and India. 2
O. Bayulgen (B)
University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
e-mail: oksan.bayulgen@uconn.edu
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
R. Mills and L.-C. Sim (eds.), Low Carbon Energy in the Middle East
and North Africa, International Political Economy Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59554-8_6
155
Byzantine Energy Politics: The Complex Tale
of Low Carbon Energy in Turkey
Oksan Bayulgen
A Dangerous Fossil Fuel Dependency
Turkey is addicted to fossil fuels with major implications to the country’s
economic, geostrategic, and environmental well-being. About 87% of the
burgeoning energy demand in the country is met with natural gas, oil,
and coal (28, 29, and 30%, respectively). In power generation, the share of
fossil fuels is less but still very significant with 68% in 2018. Natural gas by
far has played the biggest role in the country since the end of the 1990s.
Turkey has been the second country, after China, in terms of natural gas
demand percentage growth, growing by 522% from 188,070 terra joules
(TJ) in 1999 to 1,170,038 TJ in 2017. 1 Meanwhile, coal has become
natural gas’ biggest competitor as Turkey accelerated in recent years its
reliance on coal for all sectors. Including all coal plants proposed and
under construction, Turkey has the largest coal power plant development
program in the world, outside China and India. 2
O. Bayulgen (B)
University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
e-mail: oksan.bayulgen@uconn.edu
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
R. Mills and L.-C. Sim (eds.), Low Carbon Energy in the Middle East
and North Africa, International Political Economy Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59554-8_6
155