Ambiguity drives away investors

The two-year waiting list for licenses to set up wind turbine farms in Turkey has started to drive away investors. The number of companies waiting for licenses to produce energy from wind hs declined from 750 to 691.

Approval of the applications has dragged on since Nov. 1, 2007, causing the number of applicants to drop, said Murat Durak, chairman of the Turkish Wind Energy Association, or TÜREB. Demand worth 78,000 megawatts declined to 35,000 megawatts within two years.

“From Nov. 1, 2007 to 2009 many regulations and procedures related to wind energy have changed. Now, the applications will have to be resubmitted,” said Zeri Eriş, director general of Polat Energy, an electricity generator and distributor company.

Come 2010, the waiting period will come to an end, according to Hasan Köktaş, chairman of the Energy Market Regulatory Authority, or EMRA. The authority has been listening to the observations of other electricity institutions. The latest info EMRA gathered was from the Electrical Power Resources Survey and Development Administration. Now, a report on the issue is expected from the Turkish Electricity Transmission Company, or TEİAŞ.

However, according to sector representatives, the situation in wind energy is not as good as the administrations state. The worries of investors related to a further delay are focusing on several issues. One being TEİAŞ’s decision to set a limit equal to the vacancy on the transformer a company has applied for. The investors will not be able to utilize any other transformer than the one identified. Another issue is the fact that only 5 percent of transformer stations will be channeled to the wind power plant. TEİAŞ has also removed 380-kilowatt high-tension lines and transformer stations used for the transmission of electricity coming from wind plants. It means wind energy transmission will not be able to use these lines. This will prevent the building of large-scale wind plants.

According to a wind plant manager, who wished to remain anonymous, TEİAŞ is the main reason why EMRA has been postponing the license approvals. In a situation where the utilization of 380-kilowatt high-tension lines is out of question, many applications will automatically be refused. Meanwhile, many licenses already given allow the utilization of the aforementioned high-tension lines.

The biggest problem will be experienced in more than 500-kilowatt wind plants, according to Ali Çolak, marketing manager of Soyut Energy, a wind turbine production company. Noting the infrastructure is insufficient on the issue, Çolak said there is much need for investments in the industry, but in the current economic climate that does not seem possible.

The hopes of wind industrialists have also lessened due to a recent announcement of Köktaş related to contributions. He said according to the new rules, for the next 20 years, private companies that offer the highest contribution margin for 1 kilowatt per hour will hold the right to obtain licenses.