by Ata Ufuk Seker
ANKARA
State-owned Turkish Coal Enterprises' underground mining production rose 13-fold in the last decade, according to the company's operation report.
In 2004, the state-owned company produced around one million tons of coal through underground mining; by 2013, the company's production reached 13 million tons.
According to the report, there are 15.1 billion tons of coal reserves in the country. Turkish coal Enterprises' current reserves stand at 2.1 billion tons of coal.
Domestic coal represents 13 percent of the country’s current electricity production capacity. But demand is increasing at lightning speed. It almost doubled in the past decade and is expected to double again by 2023.
In fact, Turkey trails only China in terms of rising demand in electricity.
In order to match this rapid rate of increase, Turkey aims to invest more than US$120 billion in the energy sector.
Electricity production goal for 2023 in Turkey's plan for 2023 is to produce 30 percent of its electricity from coal, 30 percent from renewables, 30 percent from natural gas and 10 percent from nuclear.
Two nuclear power plants are therefore in the works for 2023. One plant, which Russian energy company Rosatom has agreed to build and operate, is located in Mersin on the Mediterranean coast. The other, in Sinop on the Black Sea coast, will be operated by a French-Japanese consortium. Each will cost around US$20 billion.
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