THE GLOBAL WINDOW OF TURKISH FOOD AND AGRICULTURE The Global Window of Turkish Food and Agriculture Sector
Related Articles
Press release…
Ali Kındap, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Geothermal Energy Association (JED), said that the sector currently employs over 20 thousand people in areas such as energy production, thermal tourism, residential heating and geothermal greenhouses.
“IT CAN MULTIPLY ITS EMPLOYMENT BY FIVE TIMES”
Stating that geothermal creates a high value in the field of clean energy with this employment level, Kındap said, “Our sector has the potential to multiply its current employment level by at least five times with the increase in investments in the integrated usage areas of geothermal. Especially with the rapid commissioning of geothermal greenhouses, we will observe a rapid increase in employment in agriculture. Considering that at least one person is employed per decarer, it will be easily possible to reach over 100 thousand jobs in this field alone.”
Pointing out that thermal tourism is among the most employment-intensive sectors, JED Chairman Ali Kındap also reminded that although Türkiye is the leading country in Europe in terms of geothermal energy, it has only 60 thousand thermal bed capacity.
Indicating that Germany, with its 750 thousand thermal bed capacity, hosts more than 10 million tourists every year, Kındap made the following assessment:
“THERMAL TOURISM INVESTMENTS SHOULD BE SUPPORTED”
“Our country is a geothermal country with nearly 1,500 natural exit points. This resource is ready under our feet. It is waiting to be used and to contribute to our country by turning into added value.
With the support of thermal tourism investments, which is one of the areas that provide intensive employment and the commissioning of facilities that appeal to tourists with high income levels, Türkiye can be the number one country in the world in this field. We can boost the number of thermal tourists, which is only 3 million today and almost all of whom are our own citizens, to more than 10 million and we can obtain foreign currency inflow of more than 20 billion dollars in this field alone.”
“HOUSING HEATING AND ENERGY ALSO PROVIDE EMPLOYMENT”
JED President Ali Kındap, who informed that there is a resource potential that can heat at least 5 million houses and industrial facilities in the country despite the fact that nearly 160 thousand houses are heated with geothermal energy as of today, added, “We can bring the comfort of geothermal heating to almost every province, especially to the provinces with the richest geothermal resources.”
Emphasising that 63 power plants across the country produce energy from geothermal energy, Kındap concluded, “Highly qualified employment is created in these power plants and that they will need a large number of intermediate labour force and engineer staff when new investments are commissioned in different geographies of Anatolia.”
