The environment represents the entirety of all conditions and factors that impact on the growth and life of all organisms that inhabit earth. Ecology is the branch of science that investigates living organisms and their interactions with their physical surroundings. Both are closely related and are in constant interaction. In other words, any changes in the environment can impact living organisms, and vice versa.

The environment is defined as the surroundings and the conditions under which humans, animals or plants lead their lives and activities. The concept of environment represents all aspects of the physical and biological world, and how they interact with each other. Because human life depends on it, the environment plays a central role in the human lifecycle. To summarize, the environment is the whole of the general conditions that surround humans at a given point in time and space. The environment is the sum of all conditions in which an organism must survive or flourish.

The habitats that were formed upon the emergence of life on earth can be very small, or as large as a continent. Ecosystems are habitats which appear vastly different from one another. They are environments in which herbivores, carnivores and omnivores coexist in a setting of energy exchange and food cycle with unique chemical and physical characteristics. Ecosystems form as a result of perfect harmony of living or non-living components. Any disruption of the balance would lead to systemic dysfunction. Organisms that pursue their vital activities are called biotic factors, which include living factors in the food chain. And the environment in which vital activities are pursued is called the abiotic factors, which include non-living components such as wind, humidity, temperature, light, air, water, etc.

Underground resources, mines, lakes, oceans, soil, atmosphere, climate etc. are classified as non-living things, and microorganisms, animals and humans are classified as living things. These two components interact with each other physically, biologically and chemically. An ecological balance is in place when interactions such as nutrition, occupation of physical space, providing oxygen, etc., occur under natural circumstances. This is a result of the ecosystem being a natural systematic mechanism. The state of balance is caused by each species having a unique ecological niche. Until today, the ecosystem was maintaining its state of balance but now it has become deteriorating.

The human kind, an important link in the chain of ecological balance, is behaving in a manner to disrupt the balance; advances in science and technology, industrial use of fossil fuels, rapid depletion of natural resources, rapid population growth and overconsumption and other activities adversely impact on ecosystems. Humans attack the natural plant cover to expand their habitats. They use up finite resources for consumption, risking complete depletion. They discharge various chemicals into waters and soil from manufacturing and processing, or pollute the air by emission of harmful gasses.

These actions drive environmental pollution, impair living conditions, and adversely impact on the wellbeing of living organisms. Correcting this situation relies on an accurate understanding of ecology and its importance.

What Can We Do to Protect Ecology?

On an individual scale, what we can do to protect the environment may be limited, but on a mass scale, action can be taken that can drive substantial change, including the following:

• Most waste can be recycled to be used again, but for that, waste must be sorted into glass, plastic, metal and battery waste. Waste that has been sorted before disposal can be reused, significantly reducing their potential harmful effects. Care should be taken with disposal of waste.
• It is important to control atmospheric emission of industrial gasses, as uncontrolled emission both pollutes the air and increases the risk of certain types of environmental disasters.
• Unplanned urbanization is a key factor, as it entails various other objectionable effects on the environment, including contamination of clean water sources.
• It is important to maximize utilization of renewable sources of energy. Non-renewal of sources equals waste of natural resources. When generating energy, an effort is made to remove pollution and use energy for it.

What does clean energy mean?

In short, clean energy can be defined as a type of energy which is infinitely renewable and is not reliant on raw materials. Other important criteria for clean energy sources are portability, not needing maintenance, production at the point of demand,  zero waste output and non-noisy production. Turkey is quite rich in terms of both solar and wind power. We do not have the luxury to let this wealth go to waste, and must regard our infinite wind and solar power resources as the main future candidate for heating and electricity production in the years ahead.

Does the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources provide any incentives for “Clean Energy Production” projects using renewable energy sources?

In Turkey, investments for energy production are made and operated by the private sector according to Law #6446 on Electric Market. As yet, the ministry offers no support for similar projects. For this project, it may be considered viable to apply for programs for R&D projects being conducted by Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology, Presidency of the Agency for Supporting and Developing Small and Medium-Scale Businesses (KOSGEB) and the Presidency of Technology and Innovation Support Programs (TEYDEP), operating under the Turkish Agency for Scientific and Technological Research (TÜBİTAK).

If an electricity generation facility is established without license based on renewable energy sources, to whom and at what price and for how many years can the surplus power be sold?

The surplus of electricity generated by facilities established without license to produce electricity renewable energy sources will be purchased for a period fo 10 years at the price listed in the Schedule I to the Law on Renewable Energy Sources, if online by the end of 2020.

What is the licensure procedure for renewable energy power plants?

The roadmap for obtaining license for renewable energy sources is available at: http://www.yegm.gov.tr/yenilenebilir/lisansli_yol_haritasi.aspx.

Where can I find information on the wind power potential of individual provinces of Turkey?

The General Directorate of Renewable Energy has created and made available to users a Wind Power Potential Atlas of Turkey (REPA). Using REPA, it is possible to access information on wind power potential for Turkey, regions, provinces or specific areas. Wind power data is available at: http://www.yegm.gov.tr/YEKrepa/REPA-duyuru_01.html.

How is the geothermal power potential is distributed in Turkey?

In Turkey, the areas with potential are located 79% in West Anatolia, 8.5% in Central Anatolia, 7.5% in Marmara Region, 4.5% in East Anatolia and 0.5% in other regions. 94% of our geothermal springs are low or moderate-temperature, suitable for direct applications (i.e. heating, spa tourism, mineral extraction), and 6% are suitable for indirect applications (i.e. electricity generation).

What are the regulatory rules for environmental suitability inspection of geothermal power plants in Turkey?

The environmental impact assessment approval of geothermal power plants is governed by Article, Paragraph 3 of the Regulation Implementing Law #5686 on Geothermal Sources and Natural Mineral Waters, which provides the following: “After obtaining an operation license, the license holder will obtain approval of Environmental Impact Assessment or an Environmental Impact Assessment Waiver, and make an application with the ministries, public agencies and institutions concerned within three months, to obtain the necessary regulatory permissions as required by the regulations currently in force governing the licensed area and operation. Operation cannot be initiated before completing the Environmental Impact Assessment process and obtaining the necessary permits.” Also, Article 12 of the implementing regulation provides that “The Administrative Authority (for metropolitans, the Governor’s Office) will conduct yearly inspections to verify that appropriate measures are in place for protecting the geothermal system and the environment, and reinjection and discharge operations are performed in line with the technical requirements and environmental protection regulations.”

What is the maximum installed capacity of licensed solar power plants?

According to the Regulation on Electricity Market Licensure, the installed capacity of individual plants cannot exceed 50 MW in a pre-license application for establishing a solar-based power plant. However, according to the Regulation on Zones of Renewable Energy Sources, the total installed capacity will be determined by the Specifications Sheet to be prepared by the Ministry.

Is solar-based electricity production incentivized?

According to Law #5346 on the Use of Renewable Energy Sources for Generating Electricity, operators are granted a purchase guarantee at 13.3  US cents per kWh for 10 years, for power plants coming online before the end of 2020. Also, for licensed solar power plants, the prices applied to local certified equipment listed in Schedule 2 to the Law adds to the guarantee price for 5 years.

Is obtaining a license and forming a corporation required for sites with less than 1MW capacity?

Users who wish to meet their own electricity demand may establish renewable energy power plants with up to 1 MW installed capacity. Such individuals are not required to obtain a license or form a corporation.

How is electricity generated from solar power?

Solar panels produce electricity, unlike solar collectors which produce hot water. The sunlight hitting the panel surface causes the panels, which are made of a special semiconductor material, to generate//convert solar power to electricity. The system need not receive direct sunlight to function; daylight is sufficient, which allows production even in cloudy weather.

How is electricity generated from wind power?

The blades of a wind turbine enables conversion of the wind’s kinetic energy to electricity. Production capacity/power increases in proportion to the turbine blade size and wind speed.

Renewable Energy is defined as power that can be derived from natural sources and replenished infinitely by nature. Let us first discuss what we mean by infinitely replenished. The source of these types of energy is “nature.” It is derived from energy sources that are present in ongoing, natural processes. Sustained natural processes are used for producing renewable energy. It is not possible to permanently deplete renewable energy through consumption by facilities, animals or humans. Natural resources are used for generating power, which replenish themselves at a much faster rate than they are used, which is why “depletion” is not possible. Renewable energy, in other words sustainable energy, is a type of energy that can be infinitely used without depending on a resource which is depleted by use. And the term renewable energy source refers to the resources from which such energy is derived.

Why Are Renewable Energy Sources Important?

Renewable energy is derived from “natural resources” which are accessible in nature continuously or repeatedly. These resources occur spontaneously and are not depleted over time, and are therefore considered alternative energy production. The roads are jammed with vehicles. The population is growing rapidly. The growth rate of industrialization drives up the need for energy at an increasing rate. Commonly-used fuels such as coal, brown coal and gasoline, if innovative technologies are not used, “harm and pollute” the environment which upsets our planet. In such situations, alternative energy production comes in and plays a critical role, giving humans and the nature a breathing space. Because renewable energy sources offer economic benefits and the possibility for infinite use, they are almost a savior of the humanity for the rest of our time on our planet. These environmentally-friendly resources are n undepletable resource. The use of renewable energy sources also has the following benefits:
· They are rapidly replenished, which means power for human use can be generated without much effort.
· They do not cause pollution, and they are cleaner compared to other fuels.
· Because they are naturally sustained, they offer an alternative and undepletable sources of energy.

What Are Renewable Energy Sources?

We can classify forms of energy that exist in nature in their own cycle in this category. Throughout the history of science, sources of energy are grouped based on the resources they use, under 8 main headings as follows:
· Wind power
· Solar power
· Hydropower
· Geothermal power
· Biomass power

After the first oil crisis in 1973, all countries have become better aware of the importance of energy. After that date, countries took substantial steps for diversifying their energy sources and increasing their use of alternative energy sources; in particular, energy importers sought policies to support sustainable energy use. By 2000s, the efforts aimed at alternative energy gained great momentum and the number of studies into renewable energy began growing.

Renewable energy can be defined as “a source of energy which can be derived from natural sources and replenished infinitely.”  The main characteristics which distinguishes renewable energy from other types of energy is that it can be naturally replenished and it will not vanish. Moreover, renewable energy forms are highly important in that they reduce carbon emissions harmful to the environment, and they don’t need importing as they are an indigenous resource, reducing dependency on exports.

Renewable energy sources are mainly grouped under “solar,” “wind,” “geothermal,” “hydrolic,” “biomass,” “tidal” and “hydrogen” power. Notably, sun is the main source of most of these energy forms, affecting them directly or indirectly. In fact, even fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas are actually a transformed form of solar energy. Therefore, sun can be defined as the most important energy source for earth. The types of renewable energy and their sources are listed below (Table 1).

Although renewable energy sources have such an enormous potential,  oil ranks in first place among types of energy consumed in the world, followed by coal and natural gas, in this order. The share of renewable energy in total primary energy consumption3 is merely 9.5 percent (total of hydropower and renewable) (Figure 1).

Investments in renewable energy and technological advances are driving up the consumption rate of renewable, or “clean” energy. In this context, the share of renewable energy worldwide is expected to be 20-21% by yearend 2016, and grow even further by 2020.

Approximately, 9 percent of total renewable energy use worldwide is from biomass use, in other words conventional means of cooking and heating, and 10.3 percent is from modern renewable sources of energy (Figure 2).

As of 2014, the share of renewable energy in global final energy consumption was 19.2 percent, which continued rising in 2015 and 2016 to above 20 percent. The share of fossil fuels in final consumption is approximately 79 percent, and nuclear energy approximately has a 2.5 percent share (Figure 2). This shows that about a fifth of the energy consumed in the world is covered from renewable sources. On the other hand, fossil fuels have a very large share of total energy consumption. Despite very high dependency of the world on fossil fuels, recently renewable energy sources, including biomass, geothermal, solar, wind, hydropower and biofuels, began supplying approximately 10 percent of total energy use. And looking at the share of modern forms of renewable energy in final energy consumption, we can see that renewable energy used for heating ranks first with 4.2 percent, and hydropower ranks second with 3.9 percent.