Turkey will save 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas with its new power plants, said country's energy and natural resources minister on Saturday.
Minister Ali Riza Alaboyun told Anadolu Agency that the ministry is working to decrease country's dependence on importation.
He added 'the power plants which are made in this year will use 80 percent domestic products to produce power, this enable us to import 5 bcm less natural gas. In other words 10 percent of the country's total natural gas import.'
Turkey is increasingly dependent on natural gas imports and the country buys roughly 50 bcm of gas per year on average, according to data.
He expressed that it is important to diversify sources of Turkey's energy production.
Turkey's installed power capacity reached 72,156 megawatts as of Oct 30, explained Alaboyun. 'This figure shows that country’s installed power capacity increased by four percent since the end of last year,' Alaboyun said.
Alaboyun explained that the investments of 2015 share is 41.6 percent hydro, 37.4 percent thermal, 13.1 percent wind, 5.2 percent biomass and 2.5 percent solar power.
Reporting By Nuran Erkul
Writing By Huseyin Erdogan
Anadolu Agency
huseyin.erdogan@aa.com.tr