In recent years, the demand for renewable energy resources has increased along with the environmental sensitivity increased as well. This increase of demand escalated with COVID-19 pandemic and with Europe’s aim to decrease energy dependency to Russia after Russian-Ukrainian War. In the pandemic period, renewable energy has become the sole energy resource that increased the demand and since the industrial revolution of 250 years before, for the first time the demand for those resources has increased in the energy consumption of the world.[1] According to reports named “Statistical Review of World Energy 2021” by British Petroleum (BP);[2] the proportions of sustainable/renewable energy has increased dramatically in the post-COVID-19 period, yet it did nıt arrived the level of hydro energy, and still its proportion remains lower according to other energy sources.
It is predicted the proportion for solar and wind power, which is 20 years old yet, will arrive to the point of other energy types, by increasing significantly after Russian-Ukrainian War in the attempts of decreasing dependency of the EU to Russian energy resources. Moreover, they could exceed the fossil energy in the long term under the aims of climate change and decrease of fossil fuel reserves.
In the sense of developments that support the idea, for preventing struggles and interruption in energy market that was created by Russia’s invasion to Ukraine, European Commission has developed the initiative named “REPowerEU” aiming at energy saving, clean energy production and diversification of energy resources. On the website of the European Commission on the initiative, which was supported by financial and legal preventions about new energy infrastructure that EU is needed,[3] it was clarified that 85% of the Europeans believed gas and petroleum dependency on Russia must be immediately decreased for supporting Ukraine, and if they unite, Europe can achieve this quickly.
In the REPowerEU initiative, there are issues such as the short-term supply of gas, LNG and hydrogen through the EU Energy Platform, the establishment of new energy partnerships with reliable suppliers, and the implementation of new solar and wind energy projects for the three objectives mentioned above. In the middle-term aims, which was predicted to be completed before 2027, there are topics on national REPowerEU plans should be supported with 300 billion euros and reforms, new legal regulations on constructing faster renewable energy centrals in the lower-risk regions, increasing the 2030 target of the share of clean energy in total energy from 40% to 45% and taking regulatory measures to increase energy efficiency take place.
In the EU action plan to achieve all those aims, increasing LNG supply from the USA and Canada by sea, and from Norway both by pipeline and by sea, increasing cooperation with Azerbaijan in the field of energy, especially on the Southern Gas Corridor, making political agreements with gas supplier countries such as Egypt and Israel, energy with Algeria Restarting the dialogue in the field, continuing cooperation with the main energy producers in the Gulf, including Qatar, and Australia, ensuring coordination with gas buyers such as Japan, China and South Korea, and finally investigating the export potentials of sub-Saharan countries such as Nigeria, Senegal and Angola were determined.[4]
It is obvious that there are some criticisms, on Turkmen gas, that do not take place in the action plan[5], or on Germany’s deal with Qatar on long-term LNG gas supply, by claiming that the money flow to Russia will not stop in the short term.[6] In addition to this, there are also cases where results could not be achieved, such as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in March, which apparently did not yield any tangible results. Lastly, EU’s 6th sanctions package to Russia, to decrease petroleum import for 92% until the end of year, to find alternatives to Russian petroleum, France’s Minister of Economics Brune Le Maire had another meeting with the UAE.
The following information is included in the news prepared by Deutsche Welle (DW) regarding the plans of some EU member countries, which are ahead of other EU countries in renewable energy:[7] Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen, has clarified that they aimed at to increase “offshore” wind power capacities to quadruple until 2030, and until 2050 they aimed at to increase 10 times more. Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte has highlighted that the first reason to put forwards renewable energy is that the climate change, and the other is Russia’s invasion to Ukraine. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has expressed that the investment will decrease energy prices ten times lower and CO2 emissions will decrease for the name of the EU. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on the other hand, emphasized that the North Sea is large enough to establish the wind power plants and that such projects can be realized after cost-benefit analysis.
In the action plan called “A 10-Point Plan to Reduce the European Union’s Reliance on Russian Natural Gas” of International Energy Agency (IEA), which takes place under 2022 March Report,[8] except from the other prepositions, there are topics on renewable energy. Application of those advices, renewable energy resources will contribute 35 TWh in 2023, and that would mean saving 6 billion m³ of gas.[9]
From the perspective of Turkey, the situation of our country, which has made a significant progress in the production of wind energy equipment in terms of renewable energy, as well as natural gas scenarios that will reduce dependence on Russia, is noteworthy. According to the “Wind Energy in Europe-2021 Statistics and 2022-2026 Forecast Report” prepared by the European Wind Energy Association (WindEurope), the top organization representing the wind energy sector in Europe; In 2021, Turkey ranks 4th after England, Sweden and Germany in the production of installed wind power plant equipment in Europe with a capacity of 1.4 gigawatts (GW).[10] In order to achieve %40 percent of clean (renewable) energy proportion in the total energy aims, it was needed to produce 32 GWs of production in a year between 2022-2026 and Turkey’s role will be significant in the production in the country.
As a result, considering that the investment costs of wind energy are decreasing day by day compared to fossil fuel-based energy such as natural gas and oil, and companies are starting to invest in this field without government support, it can be said that this type of energy will replace other types of energy in the future, especially for Europe. Another remarkable point is that the EU, which is trying to provide autonomy in the field of defense and security against the USA/NATO with the “Strategic Compass”, which started its work long before the Russia-Ukraine War and came into force after being approved last March, is at least in terms of energy. It is his determination to achieve autonomy against Russia.
[1] Volkan Özdemir, Enerji Güvenliği ve Doğal Gaz Piyasaları, Pankuş Yayınları, Ankara 2022, s.14.
[2] “Statistical Review of World Energy 2021 | 70th edition s.12”, BP, https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/energy-economics/statistical-review/bp-stats-review-2021-full-report.pdf, (Date of Accession: 06.06.2022).
[3] “REPowerEU: affordable, secure and sustainable energy for Europe”, European Council https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal/repowereu-affordable-secure-and-sustainable-energy-europe_en, (Date of Accession: 06.06.2022).
[4] Ibid.
[5] “ANKASAM Webinar | Avrupa’ya Türkiye Üzerinden Türkmen Gazı: Umutları Gerçeklerle Güncellemek”, ANKASAM, https://www.ankasam.org/ankasam-webinar-avrupaya-turkiye-uzerinden-turkmen-gazi-umutlari-gerceklerle-guncellemek/, (Date of Accession: 07.06.2022).
[6] Patrick Wintour, “Germany agrees gas deal with Qatar to help end dependency on Russia”, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/20/germany-gas-deal-qatar-end-energy-dependency-on-russia, (Date of Accession: 07.06.2022).
[7] “EU unveils €300 billion plan to reduce its energy dependency on Russia”, DW News, May 19, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkcTN9E33eI, (Date of Accession: 07.06.2022).
[8] “A 1-Point Plan to Reduce the European Union’s Reliance on Russian Natural Gas”, International Energy Agency, https://www.iea.org/reports/a-10-point-plan-to-reduce-the-european-unions-reliance-on-russian-natural-gas, (Date of Accession: 07.06.2022).
[9] IEA Report on 3 March 2022.
[10] “Wind energy in Europe 2021 Statistics and the outlook for 2022-2026”, s. 7, Wind Europe https://windeurope.org/intelligence-platform/product/wind-energy-in-europe-2021-statistics-and-the-outlook-for-2022-2026/, (Date of Accession: 07.06.2022).
