Geothermal Energy in Turkey

For more information regarding potential investment opportunities in the Turkish energy market, a law firm should be consulted.

Turkey has one eighth of the world's geothermal potential and is ranked 7th in the world. Turkey is located on the Mediterranean volcanic belt which is one of the most promising geothermal fields.

Much of this potential is of relatively low enthalpy that is not suitable for electricity production but is still useful for direct heating applications; at the end of 1999, Turkey's total installed capacity for direct heating was 820 thermal megawatts (MWth), of which about 390 MWth provided heating for 51,600 residences, about 100 MWth provided heating for about 45 hectares of greenhouses, and about 330 MWth was used to provide heated water for about 200 spas. By 2010, as many as 500,000 residences could be heated by geothermal power, which would represent the use of about 3,500 MWth.

Turkey presently has one operating geothermal power plant, a 20 MWe facility in the Denizli-Kizildere geothermal field in the southwestern Turkey province of Denizli. The facility includes nine production wells, and also has an integrated liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) and dry ice production factory that can produce a combined total of 40,000 metric tons per year of the two products. Another 20 MWe power production unit is being planned for this facility.

There are six other geothermal fields that have been identified, all in far southwest Turkey, that may be suitable for geothermal power production: the Germencik-Aydin field in Aydin Province, the Çanakkale-Tuzla field in Çanakkale Province, the Izmir-Sefirihiser field in Izmir Province, the Aydin-Salvatli field in Aydin Province, the Kutahya-Simav field in Kutahya Province, and the Dikili-Bergama field in Izmir Province. The Germencik-Aydin field may be the most promising of these as it has a power potential of at least 100 MWe; a new 25 MWe power plant, to be located near the city of Germencik, is in the planning stages. Turkey hopes to generate 500 MWe from geothermal energy by the year 2010 and 1,000 MWe by the year 2020.