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For Immediate Release: December 9, 2011
Contact: Lorri Crowley (202) 482-3809
Commerce, U.S. Businesses Conclude Successful Renewable Energy Mission to Turkey
ISTANBUL – Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Market Access and Compliance Michael Camuñez led 16 U.S. renewable energy and energy efficiency companies on a trade mission to Turkey from December 5-9, 2011. The trade mission’s goal was to promote leading U.S. technology and services to help Turkey achieve its renewable energy and energy efficiency goal.
Energy demand in Turkey is expected to grow 5 to 7 percent per year into 2023, requiring more than $100 billion of investment in power generation, transmission, and distribution. By 2023, Turkey seeks to produce 30 percent of its power needs from renewable resources, including solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and biomass. By increasing renewable energy and energy efficiency exports, U.S. firms can help Turkey meet its energy needs while supporting American jobs in the growing clean energy sector.
“The goals we set forth for this trade mission are all about growth: growing the economic partnership between the U.S. and Turkey, supporting the growing U.S. renewable energy sector, and growing the number of jobs at home,” said Camuñez. “I am proud to report this trade mission was enormously successful in helping us advance all of these interrelated goals.”
Already, the trade mission produced tangible benefits, including the signing of a grant between the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) and Hema Natural Energy Resources Company. USTDA is providing nearly $450,000 for a Feasibility Study that will evaluate the technical, financial, environmental, and other critical aspects of a combined coal bed methane extraction and power generation project at Hema’s coalfield in the northwestern Anatolian region. If implemented, the project is expected to create a new source of power production in Turkey, generating 800-1,000 local jobs and as much as $350 million in U.S. exports.
“The U.S. and Turkey have a natural partnership,” Camuñez added. “One represents the world's largest economy. The other has one of the world's fastest growing economies. It makes both business and common sense for us to build our futures together: meeting Turkey’s energy needs, supporting U.S. jobs, and increasing the use of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies and products.”
While in Istanbul, Assistant Secretary Camuñez held bilateral meetings with the Ministry of Energy Under Secretary as well as the Ministry of Economy Under Secretary to discuss key policy issues relating to advancing trade in the renewable energy space as well as developing the bilateral U.S.-Turkey trade relationship.
Trade mission participants met with senior Turkish government officials and private sector representatives over the course of the mission, which included over 320 one on one meetings, roundtables and match-making events in Ankara, Izmir and Istanbul. They also visited the Near Zero Zone Project, a pilot project that pairs 20 Turkish companies in the Ataturk Organized Industrial Zone in Izmir, Turkey, with technical resources and the expertise needed to achieve significant energy savings.
The Trade Mission was recruited, organized, and executed by the International Trade Administration’s U.S. Commercial Service domestic and international teams, in coordination with the Department of Energy, U.S. Trade and Development Agency, U.S. Export Import Bank, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and several local sponsors including the Ankara Chamber of Industry, the Turkish American Business Association, the Izmir Chamber of Commerce, the Izmir Ataturk Organized Industrial Zone, the Izmir Development Agency, the Turkish Industry and Business Association, and the American Business Forum in Turkey.
The participating U.S. companies were:
- Abound Solar – Loveland, CO
- AES – Arlington, VA
- Clipper Wind Power LLC – Carpinteria, CA
- Combustion Associates, Inc. – Corona, CA
- Dow Chemical – Midland, MI
- First Solar – Tempe, AZ
- General Electric – Fairfield, CT
- Ingersoll Rand – North America HQ in Davidson, NC
- Johnson Controls, Inc. – Milwaukee, WI
- Ko-Tech – Mclean, VA
- Kvar Energy Savings, Inc. – Daytona Beach, FL
- MEGTEC Systems, Inc. – De Pere, WI
- OSISoft LLC – San Leandro, CA
- SolarReserve LLC – Santa Monica, CA
- Sun Edison LLC – Belmont, CA
- World Business Capital – Hartford, CT
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