11. Enerji Verimliliği Forum ve Fuarı
Dear members of the European Union, dear representatives of the energy sector, esteemed guests, I extend my warmest greetings to you with my heartfelt feelings and respect.
I wish that the 11th Energy Efficiency Forum and Forum will be a means of good.
I welcome our guests who have organized the forum and the fair. I hope the program will be successful.
I would like to thank everyone who contributed to our energy efficiency, especially our institutions that organized the forum, and those who participated in the event from home and abroad.
I would like to thank everyone who contributed to our energy efficiency with their opinions, suggestions, confirmations and criticisms.
Dear participants, we are living in an age where energy, especially energy security, has become one of the most strategic issues of humanity.
The increasing population and the growing economy are parallel, and the world's energy needs are increasing year by year.
Countries, which are still developing, are striving to grow above the global average in order to reach a certain level of development.
At the point of energy demand and demand security, a future full of tests awaits us as humanity.
I would like to draw your attention to the following issue. Energy has long been the subject of a destructive competition in human history, not a cooperation.
Especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, when many lives were lost for the sake of energy and many countries were exploited, deep wounds opened in the minds.
The book, Petrol Storm, by the late Raif Karadağ, is a leading work that illuminates this period.
A drop of oil, a drop of blood, imperialist mentality, the impact of humanity, especially the pain, destruction and conflicts it still feels.
While millions of people living on rich underground resources are struggling with deep poverty, countries thousands of kilometers away from these resources have grown, become rich, and offered a prosperous life to their citizens.
Despite all the time that has passed, the scale of prosperity and development has not yet been closed.
When you look at satellite photos showing different continents, you can clearly see the gulf between the north and the south.
On the one hand, there are points on the map that shine everywhere, on the other hand, it is almost impossible to find a bright spot in the dark.
As long as the paradigm for energy has not changed, it seems very difficult for this picture to reach a more just, more balanced structure.
Another thing to point out is that the rise of energy demand does not only indicate an increase in population and growth, but also an increase in prosperity.
In parallel with the increase in prosperity, the use of energy, especially electricity, is becoming widespread.
Electric products, which are seen as equivalent to comfort, have now become an indispensable element of our lives and are expanding their use.
For example, last year, the sales of white goods in our country exceeded 10 million with an increase of 7 percent compared to the previous year.
The same is true for electric cars.
As in the whole world, the number of electric and hybrid vehicles is increasing asymmetrically in our country.
For example, around 134,000 electric cars were sold during January-February this year.
A life without electricity is not only in cities, but also in the most remote villages and towns.
We are facing a similar picture in the use of natural gas.
Look, in 2002, the number of cities in our country where natural gas infrastructure existed was only 5.
Today, we have delivered natural gas to all of our 81 cities.
23 years ago, while 33 percent of our population could access natural gas, today we have increased this rate to 85 percent and this number is increasing.
Dear guests, dear friends.
As Turkey, we are in a serious economic dynamism since 2002.
Our economy grew by 5.4 percent on average per annum in 2003-2024.
In 2004, we recorded a 3.3 percent growth.
At the same time, we increased our per capita national income from $3,600 to $15,325 in 2024.
In the second quarter of 2025, our per capita national income increased to $17,000.
In 2023, we entered the $1 trillion economic league for the first time in our national income of $238 billion.
As you know, we shared the mid-term program with the public last month.
With the program, we set ambitious goals for the next three years.
In 2028, we plan to increase our national income from $1.9 trillion to $21,000.
We aim to transfer our exports to $300 billion and our tourism revenues to $70 billion.
We expect our population to exceed 88 million in 2030 and 94 million in 2050.
We all know very well what this means in terms of energy demand and consumption.
I believe that we are all aware of the shocking truth.
We are not a country with enough oil and natural gas like the countries around us.
We have to provide the majority of fossil fuels we use both in everyday life and in industry from abroad.
In 2002, our natural gas consumption, which was 17.4 billion cubic meters, was 53.2 billion cubic meters in 2024.
Our budget for 2025 is 59.5 billion cubic meters.
In the first eight months of this year alone, we paid $26 billion for energy consumption.
We are working hard to reduce this bill.
We carried out the largest natural gas discovery in the history of the Republic of Turkey, 785 billion cubic meters, in the Black Sea 5.5 billion years ago.
Natural gas extracted from the gas field of Sakarya was transferred to the National Service in less than three years to the Filios Land Processing Facility.
We are currently meeting the needs of 4 million households from here.
In 2026, this figure will reach 8 million households.
In 2028, it will reach 16 million households.
In oil, our daily consumption is around 1 million barrels.
We provide 160,000 barrels of this from our own resources.
Although we made a serious jump in our oil discoveries in the Black Sea and Gabar, the picture in front of us still has a distance to cover.
In order to cover this distance as soon as possible, we expanded our fleet and increased our seismic search and drilling activities.
We are currently fifth in the world in this area with four active drilling and two seismic search ships.
With the entry of our new ships into the inventory, we will rise to the fourth place.
As in all other areas, we will run without stopping and resting until we reach our goal in Turkey, which is completely independent in energy.
Dear guests, dear friends.
On the one hand, we are trying to guarantee our energy supply security by providing our own resources, and on the other hand, by increasing demand.
As you know very well, buying natural gas from international markets is not like buying gas from a grocery store.
You will determine your needs, make your plans, find reliable suppliers and reach an agreement with the best prices for your country after long negotiations.
At the supply point, there is a serious risk of being dependent on a single country and a single line.
In the first months of the Russo-Ukrainian war, our European friends personally suffered from this trouble.
Thanks to the Turkish flow, we were one of the countries that survived this period most comfortably.
There was no shortage of natural gas in industry, housing and natural gas.
Of course, in the last 23 years, the policies we have implemented have had an important effect on providing cheap, high-quality and uninterrupted energy to our country.
We have done strategic work with energy production in Turkey, and we have implemented projects that will make our country an international energy hub and corridor.
Again, in this process, we diversified our suppliers in the energy pens that we are particularly dependent on abroad.
In 2003, there were only 5 countries that supplied natural gas.
Today, BOTAŞ implements natural gas import and export with 34 countries.
We started the first flow of natural gas in Turkmengas in March.
Since March 1, the amount of natural gas delivered has reached 465 million cubic meters.
In nuclear energy, we are trying to carry our country to the top.
Currently, in 31 countries around the world, 416 reactors are active. These reactors produce about 9% of the world's electricity.
63 reactors are being built in 15 countries, including Turkey.
We will install the first electricity in the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in a very short time.
We have other nuclear power plant projects outside of Akkuyu.
We continue our talks on these issues.
In our trip to China and the last trip to the United States, we discussed this issue with our interlocutors.
The Strategic Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement we signed with the United States is an agreement based on the cooperation in peaceful nuclear energy.
With this agreement, new generation technologies such as advanced reactor technologies and small modular reactors are envisaged to be developed.
We will use nuclear energy not only for electricity production, but also in fields such as medicine, agriculture, research and industrial heating.
As a government, we are trying to ensure our energy security in the next 20-30 years with a long-term understanding without neglecting any area.
These are the moves that should normally be applauded.
No one who thinks about the good of Turkey will be disturbed by them.
But because of our policies, we are subjected to unfair criticism by our country's main opposition party.
The person at the head of the main opposition party criticizes our nuclear power plant projects one day,
the next day he criticizes the hydroelectric power plants with the jargon of marginal organizations.
The next day, he talks about the natural gas supply contracts signed with American companies.
In a sentence, he tries to dishonor our energy policies by listing a lot of lies and mistakes.
He has neither energy nor energy vision except for criticizing, attacking, slandering our projects with unprofessional claims.
The only thing he can do is to be a living shield for corruption, bribery, retaliation attacks and scandals in his party, which is exploding every day.
What can we say?
With remote control, this is how much politics is done.
Dear friends, dear guests.
We are addressees of the order not to waste water even when taking ablution from the river.
Preventing energy efficiency and waste is a subject that is as strategic for us as our cultural values.
Energy efficiency is the cleanest and cheapest energy source.
In addition, energy efficiency is one of the building blocks of our vision of net zero emissions in 2053.
We see energy efficiency as an element that strengthens our hand in the fight against the climate crisis, which increases our competitiveness in industry beyond consumption.
With this understanding, we have carried out comprehensive projects to increase our energy efficiency since 2002 as a government.
Thanks to these, we have improved the energy density by 32 percent.
We have reduced the amount of energy consumed per product and service by one third.
While the world's energy density is improved by an average of one percent per year, Turkey has improved it by four and a half percent.
Thus, we have become one of the countries that increase energy efficiency the fastest.
With the energy efficiency investments made in the industry in 2024, a profit of 700 million liras was achieved.
With the replacement of 4 million inefficient electric motors used in the industry alone, a annual savings of 15 billion liras was made.
In the agricultural sector, a 30-40 percent savings was made with drip and pressure watering systems.
We have implemented applications in housing that encourage energy efficiency.
It is possible to increase the number of these examples even more.
We are drawing the bottom of this point with thick lines.
We have no choice but to use our existing opportunities in the most efficient and effective way as a country that has invested 65 billion dollars in energy last year.
With energy efficiency studies, we can make a profit of 5 billion dollars a year.
I appreciate the efforts of our private sector in this direction.
As a public, we show interest in being an example in energy efficiency.
On the one hand, we support wind, geothermal and solar energy investments.
On the other hand, we pay attention to projects that prioritize operation.
We offer the use of houses and industry by turning even waste gas into electric energy.
Another priority in this process is to protect the environment and human health.
We stay away from the steps that endanger human health, which harm nature because we will produce energy.
Our climate law, which was adopted in July, was an important step towards our goal of zero emissions by 2053.
We are at the top of the countries that have invested in green energy in recent years.
As of this year, we have spent more than 60 percent of the renewable energy in the total established power.
In 2026, we aim to become the 31st COP, which we aim to host, with the potential of third-party states and the conference.
We will make constant efforts to increase our efforts.
May God be with us and help us.
I wish that the forum will be a means of good.
I congratulate our institutions and companies that have been awarded.
I wish to see you again and entrust you to God.
Stay healthy.
Mr. President, we would like to thank you for your addresses.
We would like to host you on stage for a while for the gift presentation and then for the award ceremony.
I would like to invite the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Mr. Alparslan Bayraktar, to the stage to present the gifts to Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
I would like to share the content of the gift, which will be presented by Mr. Bayraktar, both to the President and to our esteemed guests.
It is a special line on which the theme of energy efficiency is symbolized.
It is written on the line, Surah Al-Hurqan, verse 67.
Now we will move on to our award ceremony.
The increase of information shopping among industrial operations in order to encourage new employees in the field of energy efficiency.
The 25th Energy Efficiency Project Competition was held in the Palace.
First of all, the annual energy consumption is in the category 2, which is evaluated by industrial operations, which is between 1000 and 50,000 TEP.
With the project of efficiency and sustainability, which supports artificial intelligence, energy center, heating system, outdoor air optimization,
I would like to invite the Factory Director, Mr. Zeki Erdal Şimşek, on behalf of TOFAŞ, which is awarded the award of first place, to your strong applause.
The winners of the Industry Energy Efficiency Project Competition are awarded by our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
We will continue to host you on stage.
Mr. President, now the annual energy consumption is in the category 3, which is evaluated by industrial operations, which is above 50,000 TEP.
I would like to invite the Factory Director, Mr. İbrahim Yelmenoğlu, on behalf of TÜPRAŞ, which is awarded the award of first place,
with the energy efficiency projects of Kırıkkale Refinery, to your strong applause.
Mr. Yelmenoğlu is also receiving this award on behalf of TÜPRAŞ.
We will host him on stage for a while, next to Mr. Şimşek.
Mr. President, with your permission, we continue our award ceremony with the winners of the Energy Efficiency Competition in Buildings.
As you know, on behalf of our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 30% consumption targets were set in public buildings.
In order to transform our buildings, which are organized in this direction, into energy-efficient and efficient sustainable and climate-friendly structures, a second one was organized.
I would like to invite Mr. Ahmet Gülşen, the Director General of Karayolları, to the stage to receive the award in the category of public buildings of our project competitions.
We will also host Mr. Gülşen on stage.
Dear guests of the President, in the category of university buildings, the first prize goes to the University of Anatolia.
I would like to invite Professor Dr. Yusuf Adıgüzel, the Rector of the University of Anatolia, to receive the award.
Dear Rector, we will continue to host you on stage.
And our last award, Mr. President, the first prize in the category of commercial services buildings goes to Teknopark İstanbul.
I would like to invite Professor Dr. Abdurrahman Akyolu, the Director General of Teknopark, to receive the award.
I would like to invite the esteemed directors of our institutions and institutions to the President for the family photo.
Mr. President, if you allow me, we will expand this framework.
I would like to invite our previous ministers, our governor, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the AK Party, the deputies of the AK Party, the President of Istanbul, to the stage.
I would also like to invite our representatives from Cyprus and Azerbaijan to the stage.
I would also like to invite our district mayors.
Yes, the opening of the 11th Energy Efficiency Forum and Fair took place with the invitation of our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Our opening program with this beautiful square is coming to an end.
We would like to thank our President for his presence.
We would like to send our regards to the state of Zatı.
By the way, I would like to remind you, dear guests, ladies and gentlemen, that we are inviting you to the Quar area on the 5th floor.