Analyzing the Efficiency of Renewable Energy Sources in Terms of Electricity Generation: The Case of Turkey

Introduction

Energy has great importance in terms of directing human life as well as continuous human development and human life. There is a need for secured and accessible energy supply for the sustainability of modern societies. Now, energy is an inseparable part of human life for almost every single activity such as house, transportation, industry and medical (Tiwari & Mishra, 2012, p. 3). Moreover, the rapid increase in the world population, industrialization, urbanization and the intense involvement of technological tools and equipment in human life have caused an incredible increase in energy consumption. Energy has become the basic input in various fields such as factories, ateliers, electronic household items, street lights, railroad transportation, and even electric cars. All these developments increase energy consumption every year by 4-5% (Aydın, 2013, p. 31).

Whether it is a developed or developing country, energy is essential for the functioning of all activities. It is estimated that industrial energy use in developing countries is approximately 45-50% of total commercial energy consumption. However, large-scale energy generation and energy consumption cause environmental disruption at the same time. Because most of the energy generated worldwide is still obtained from fossil sources. It caused the determination of productive energy use methods and the exploration of alternative energy sources by policymakers and industrialists (Suganthi & Samuel, 2012, p. 1224). Because the use of fossil fuels in high amounts does not only emerge as environmental problems for countries. Dependence on fossil fuels leads to other economic and social problems such as limited oil reserves, high logistics costs of solid fuel reserves and volatility in oil prices. Renewable Energy Sources (RES) are the solution to all these problems and provide politic, economic and ethical advantages (Bigerna, Bollino, & Micheli, 2015, p. 31). Also, the benefits provided by RESs for governments and societies can be summarised as below (Apergis & Payne, 2012, p. 430):

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  To reduce the dependence on fossil fuels;

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  To reduce the carbon emissions and environmental disruption;

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  To increase the energy supply security of the region by using domestic energy sources;

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  To modernize the energy infrastructure of the region;

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  To minimize the macroeconomic effects of high and variable oil prices.

Energy generation technologies have a central role in social and economic development at every scale, from home and society to regional, national and international. Energy, environmental pollution and disruption, economic development and life quality can be considered among the effects of energy generation on social welfare. Today, the world is dependent on non-renewable fossil fuels, which is a major cause of pollution and climate change and will continue to be. Because of these problems and decreasing oil supply, finding renewable alternatives is becoming urgent gradually (Keyhani, Marwali, & Dai, 2010, p. 1). Within this framework, renewable energy use gains speed across the world slowly (Suganthi & Samuel, 2012, p. 1224). Moreover, RESs are separated according to criteria such as their effects on the environment, their cost, their effects on the social structure and the use of resources. Even though there is various RES which is commercialized or conceptualized, some of them can be more harmful than others for the environment. Especially hydroelectric has begun to be preferred lesser in the world, because it occupies more space than the other types of RESs, destroys agricultural estates and has larger expropriation costs. At this point, the question of which RES is more effective comes into prominence. The study designed for this purpose aims to measure which RESs used for electricity generation in Turkey is more effective by using one of the efficiencies measuring methods, Bi-Objective Multiple Criteria Data Envelopment Analysis (BiO-MCDEA).