Coal demand to hit all-time high in 2023

Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Prof. Dr. Kalaycı drew attention to the following issues at the opening of the second day of the 4th Clean Coal Technologies Summit: “We must make full use of our domestic resource coal with clean coal technologies in line with our national interests. Coal demand in the world will reach an all-time high in 2023. Coal will maintain its share in the energy mix yesterday, today and in the future.”

Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, on the second day of the 4th Clean Coal Technologies Summit (CCTS), organized by the Turkish Coal Producers Association (KÖMÜRDER) with the support of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and in international partnership with the World Coal Union. Prof. dr. It started with the speech of Şeref Kalaycı.

We need to produce energy from coal in the integration of renewable energy sources into the system.

Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Prof.Dr. Şeref Kalaycı said: “We all know that coal is a critical mineral for our country in terms of energy supply security. Coal, as one of the most important energy sources that offers uninterrupted energy today, continues to take a significant share from the energy mix. From a global perspective, while the countries that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases in the world have declared that they will continue their coal production until the years 2050-2060, we act with the awareness of our responsibility as a country with a 0.2 percent pollution share, and we will continue to use our domestic resources to the end in line with our national interests. We should take advantage. In order to integrate more renewable energy into the system, it is necessary to increase the installed capacity of base load power plants such as coal power plants that provide continuous and uninterrupted energy supply.

Europe has turned to coal, we must increase our domestic coal production to combat foreign dependency in energy.

Pointing out that the uncertainties caused by the Russia-Ukraine crisis caused rapid and record-breaking increases in natural gas and electricity prices, Prof. Dr. Kalaycı: “Europe was expected to focus on coal-based energy production in the winter months. In particular, it was predicted that Germany, England, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Greece would tend to produce more electricity from coal. In an environment where we import approximately 40 million tons of coal per year in our country, we have to increase our coal production, which exceeded the 100 million tons limit in 2018, by producing our best quality coal as soon as possible in order to prevent this. The high price increase in imported coal and the fight against foreign dependency in energy have also increased the demand for domestic coal in our country and will continue to increase.

Coal will maintain its share in global energy supply even in 2040

prof. Dr. Kalaycı continued his words as follows: “Even in the optimistic scenario of the International Energy Agency, which is based on the predictions that the use of renewable or alternative fuels will increase and efforts towards energy efficiency or reducing carbon emissions will be developed, it is estimated that coal will relatively maintain its share in the global energy supply in 2040. In this context, we know that new alternative energies cannot fully meet the energy needs by moving away from fossil sources. Coal will continue to be used as long as the Carbon Age continues. According to the report published by the International Energy Agency, coal consumption in the world is expected to increase, returning to the record level it reached about a decade ago, and even coal demand is expected to reach an all-time high in 2023.

We should benefit from clean coal technologies in all processes of production.

prof. Dr. Kalaycı: “It is clear that in order for our lignites to be usable in terms of environmental factors, costs and sales, they should be improved with innovative technologies and their emissions and other environmental pollution-causing properties should be eliminated. This is only possible with “Clean Coal Technologies”. In other words, the evaluation of coal in the production, preparation and use processes by prioritizing efficiency along with the environment is defined as Clean Coal Technologies. With this technology, it is aimed both to reduce emissions and wastes and to increase the energy to be obtained from coal.”