INTERVIEW - Izmir on the path to establishing a clean energy cluster

With a unique geographic location serving as a bridge between Europe and Asia, Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, has what it takes to benefit from the export opportunities arising from the ever-stronger renewable energy industry. Arguably its most westernised city, Izmir is the focus of a project that has been ongoing for almost three years now with the goal of helping develop a competitive clean energy cluster.

Renewables Now spoke with Ekin Taskin, team leader of the BEST for Energy Project, and Alper Kalayci, chairperson of the Energy Industrialist and Business Person Association (ENSIA) and managing director of local wind blade manufacturer AERO Rüzgar Endüstri AS, about said project, Turkey’s renewable energy industry and an upcoming conference that aims to shed more light on the overall strategy.

THE PROJECT

The so-called BEST for Energy Project is being implemented by the Izmir Development Agency (IZKA) in partnership with ENSIA. It was launched in the third quarter of 2020 with the purpose of helping Izmir transition to a cleantech industry through clustering approaches. A specific focus is put on supporting the companies operating in four sub-sectors, namely wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass.

"We're trying to establish Izmir and the hinterland as the cleantech centre of Turkey and maybe of Eastern Europe and parts of Western Asia, as well. This is the main focus," Taskin said and added that the region has very strong wind and solar industries, as well as very good infrastructure for geothermal energy in terms of district heating and also electricity generation. At the same time, the region has a strong agricultural sector, which paves the way for biomass power generation.

THE PREMISE

Situated on the west coast of Anatolia, the metropolitan city is already one of Turkey’s centres for domestic and foreign trade, and, Kalayci said, Izmir is among the country’s leading cities when it comes to renewable energies. According to him, the region is number one in terms of wind energy, third in solar, and fourth in geothermal. He pointed out that “the population and industry are much more focused on the west side of Turkey, which means electricity consumption is higher than in the inland, so the sources are very close to the consumption areas, which makes sense.”

At the same time, Izmir already boasts a significant foothold in equipment production, too. Kalayci stated that all four of Turkey’s wind turbine blade manufacturers are located in Izmir and train roughly 7,000 workers in total. Those companies export some 75% of their output, making Izmir a production hub for both the European and Mediterranean markets. As per tower production, Turkey has a total of eight such players and three of them are located in Izmir, while the rest are actually closer to this region.

THE ROSTER

“Some of the companies are 100% local companies, and some of them are joint ventures. Also, there are some direct investments from other countries such as South Korea. It is complicated, I can say, but we can find every type of company in the sector,” Kalayci noted, adding that there is a good supply chain thanks to local content incentives. “More than half of the materials that we use in blades we supply from the Turkish market,” he added.

Major international players with operations in Izmir include TPI Composites Inc, LM Wind Power, and Siemens, to name a few.

THE MARKET

On a national level, Turkey currently has about 104 GW of installed capacity, including some 25 GW of non-hydro renewables such as wind, solar and geothermal, corresponding to a 24% share. Kalayci is confident that the four focus energy sources of the project can supply more than 20% of the electricity in the country as a whole.

In late 2022, the Turkish government set a target to increase the country’s total power capacity to 190 GW by 2035, with wind and solar accounting for about 75% of the additions. Solar alone should account for half, according to Kalayci, who noted that such goals motivate both domestic and foreign investors. He further mentioned the nation’s hybrid regulation under which wind and solar go hand in hand, aided by energy storage.

Speaking of storage, Kalayci pointed out that from now on, the energy ministry will not be giving any pre-licences for the development of renewable energy projects without storage. Earlier this month, Turkey awarded pre-licences for the installation of renewables-based energy storage projects with a total capacity of 744 MW.

THE HURDLES

Both Taskin and Kalayci agree that the most difficult aspect of the BEST for Energy project so far has been the collection and listing of data and contacting the right businesses.

“When you start working on analysis in the cleantech sector, the most obvious problem is the data or the identification of the companies. We are using standards and some codifications to identify the companies. For instance, when you register a company you have a code. It is the same as in Europe, but this defines the business itself, not the company or the products of the company. When we talk about clean energy, there is no specific identification code dedicated to clean energy sectors, so, for instance, Alper's company is registered as a plastic company, right? So, if you do not know the company you have to identify, you have to dig and you have to have data mining a lot,” Taskin commented.

Kalayci went on to explain the case of AERO Rüzgar, a more than 20-year-old company that operates Turkey’s first wind turbine blade factory. “We are processing blades for wind turbines from composite material and plastic scrub. So, we are located in the plastic sector. When you search [with another code], it is nearly impossible to find our company and what we do, how we do it, or how much we export.”

“We call this the tacit knowledge. It is not achieved easily, you have to dig it, [...] and finally you see there is a crazy ecosystem working in Izmir for the cleantech industries,” Taskin added.

THE SUMMIT

The BEST for Energy project was launched as a three-year initiative and Taskin confirmed that it is about to be concluded on June 22, 2023. Post completion, the project’s two beneficiaries, IZKA and ENSIA, will be in charge of maintaining the sustainability of the actions.

Before that, however, an international event called the BEST For Energy Summit is planned for early May, with a conference to be held on May 3 and business-to-business (B2B) meetings scheduled for May 4. An exhibition will also take place on both days.

Taskin noted that the purpose of the event is to detail the strategy to companies and participants from the “quintuple helix” – the industry, research, government, the cluster, and citizens, allowing them to take part.

The organisers of the event expect international guests from different value chains of the cleantech industry from other countries. According to Taskin, an entrepreneurship contest and exhibition will be held with the participation of 25 entrepreneurs, while venture capital (VC) specialists will have the chance to identify future investments.

THE OBJECTIVE

Not surprisingly, given its clean energy potential, Izmir declared its interest in joining the EU Cities Mission, a European Union mission seeking to deliver 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030. In April 2022, Izmir was announced as one of 12 “cities from associated countries” to take part in this mission. Turkey’s only other participant is Istanbul.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!