Returns from funds directed into energy from renewable sources will be realized within nine to 10 years, according to Turkish energy investment company Özgül Holding’s chairman Faruk Özgül. Anadolu Agency’s Energy Terminal said he added such investments which are feasible and realistic will have a life of at least 50 years. “Investments in renewable energy are never wrong,” Özgül asserted in an interview.
Turkey is turning into a hotspot for renewable energy investments mainly in hydro, wind and solar sectors. The country’s wind power plant capacity, which in 1998 was at 8.7 MW, reached 3.65 GW by 2015. To date, Turkey’s energy watchdog EMRA has awarded 250 wind power plant licenses for a capacity of 9.9 GW.
According to Ernst and Young’s global report published on April 13, Turkey has climbed up one step in the attractiveness index for renewable energy investment, to the eighteenth spot globally, while India and Subsaharan Africa are soaring. The country came after Denmark and just before Portugal in the list of 40 countries, the report shows.
Özgül explained that the company’s main goal is to continue to be an investor with the intention of increasing production and employment.