Turkey's energy sector and some remedies against environmental pollution
In Turkey, particularly after the 1950's, increases in the levels of industrialization, urbanization and a rapidly increasing population led to increases in the nation's consumption of energy. These energy increases could not be met solely from domestic resources. Consequently importing petroleum and petroleum based energy products was the cheapest means by which energy requirements could be immediately satisfied. However as a result of the 1973 oil crisis, limiting consumption and increasing the use of domestic energy sources was necessary. The natural result of this policy was the building of more hydroelectric energy generation plants and new coal fuelled power plants using domestic low qualified lignite resources. Using locally mined lignite was increasingly being used for domestic heating. However, the heavy dependence upon low quality lignite for power generation and widespread domestic heating has caused environmental problems. Limiting industrial waste, using resources efficiently and increasing diversity of resources with non-biomass sources will contribute to a cleaner healthier environment. It is necessary to take measures which will save energy and also increase the productivity of energy producing plants. There is a potential for energy saving in both energy production and consumption as both are adversely affected by a system of inefficient energy transfer.