Turkey to construct two more nuclear power plants – Erdoğan

After the completion of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, Turkey will quickly start the preparation for the second, and third nuclear power plant, said Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Turkey plans to commission its first nuclear power Akkuyu with an installed capacity of 4,800 MW in 2023. The facility, under construction by Russia’s nuclear energy company Rosatom, is going to produce electricity to meet 10 percent of the country’s consumption.

Erdoğan said environmentalists criticized the construction of nuclear power plants, but that Turkey is determined to use nuclear energy. Anyone against nuclear energy in Turkey is against the country’s economic independence and welfare, he added during the opening ceremony of the new building of the Energy Market Regulatory Authority.

The Akkuyu nuclear station represents Turkey’s contribution to fight against climate change

Erdoğan highlighted the commissioning of Akkuyu as a way to make up for a decades-long delay in the use of nuclear energy and an important contribution to fight climate change.

He stressed the consumption of electricity has increased by 8 percent this year.

The government must consider the increasing energy needs and the global economic outlook

Studies show demand will increase by an average of 3.5 percent per year, and the government must take into account the increasing energy needs and the global economic outlook, Erdoğan said.

The National Energy and Mining Policy, which was announced in 2017, promotes the goal of using more domestic and more renewable energy.

Turkey’s aim is to install 10,000 MW in wind farms and solar parks by 2027, Erdoğan said.