Buildings to be required to use renewable energy

Buildings in Turkey above a certain size will be required to use renewable energy starting January next year to meet their energy consumption.

The respective regulation, published in the Official Gazette, stipulates that all structures with a construction area of more than 5,000 square meters will have to generate at least five percent of the energy they use by using renewable sources such as solar and wind power.

Those buildings will also have to be insulated with thicker materials in order to improve energy efficiency.

Authorities will not issue permits to the buildings which fail to meet those energy saving requirements and the transition will be gradual.

The scope of the project will be widened to cover buildings with more than 2,500 square meters of construction area in 2025 and the percentage of use of renewable sources will increase to 10 percent. Under this project, Turkey's energy import bill declined by 5 billion Turkish Liras each year, Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum recently said.

Kurum noted that buildings are responsible for more than 30 percent of the energy consumption in Turkey.

Thanks to those regulations, newly built structures' energy performance will improve by 25 percent, the minister said, adding that the national green building certificate scheme will be launched this year.

According to the directive, the Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Ministry set the width of insulation material used on the facades of the buildings to be increased to 8 centimeters from 5 centimeters in Istanbul and to 9 centimeters from 6 centimeters in Ankara, said Emrullah Eruslu, board chairman of İZODER, an association for producers and insulation materials.

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