Turkey and Denmark reach the final phase of strategic energy sector cooperation
Turkey and Denmark have entered into the third and final phase of an energy cooperation agreement to improve trade ties and climate cooperation, said an energy adviser at the Center for Global Cooperation in the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) on Tuesday.
Susana Paardekooper, the program manager for the strategic sector cooperation with Türkiye, spoke during and study search of Turkish officials and entrepreneurs to Denmark as part of the project BEST For Energy (Boosting Effective and Sustainable Transformation for Energy), at the application process for the third phase of the program for the next the four years had opened.
The program, which was initiated in 2017, aims at the long-term development of the support system from a regulatory perspective in Turkey through both government-to-government and business-to-business development.
The program has opened up cooperation on district heating and cooling, primarily from a previous legal point of view, she explained.
A heating law in Denmark since the early 80s was a starting point where the most useful elements of the law were assessed for better heating planning. These were then discussed for application in the Turkish context with a particular focus on the development of geothermal energy for district heating, and resources which are abundant in Türkiye.
Paardekøber explained that the third phase includes application processes, methods to support project development and financing for various energy projects for district heating.
“A geothermal and heating law is somewhere in the legislative procedure which can hopefully materialize. We are working with the (Turkish) Ministry (of Industry and Technology) to see how we can also support secondary legislation with the explicit aim of developing district energy,” she said.
“We are quite optimistic that in this third phase it will be possible to round off and come to a kind of consolidation and conclusion of what we have done and open the way for future cooperation,” Paardekøber said, adding that even though the program needs to to finish in the third phase, the idea is to move on for further commercial and climate cooperation.
Study search for Denmark
A study visit this week by Turkish clean energy companies and public officials to Denmark, as part of the BEST For Energy project, looks at the exploration of opportunities for new bilateral partnerships in energy and technologies.
The delegation consists of 20 representatives from energy companies and institutions in Türkiye, officials from Izmir Development Agency (IZKA), Association of Energy Industrialists and Businessmen (ENSIA), Turkish Offshore Wind Energy Association and Izmir Metropolitan Municipality and Izenerji.
The European Commission, within the framework of the Competitive Sectors Program of the Turkish Industry and Technology Department, supports the BEST For Energy project.
Started in the third quarter of 2020, IZKA, together with Izmir-based ENSIA, is to implement the project responsible for green growth based on environmental sustainability goals.