According to information obtained from the Ministry of Energy, the unexpectedly heavy rain throughout Turkey in January had a notable impact on electricity generation, increasing the share of electricity generated by hydroelectric power plants from 29 percent to 32 percent. Moreover, the Keban Dam on the Euphrates River in the province of Elazığ, one of the largest in Turkey and the 18th tallest in the world, came close to reaching its capacity, breaking a 35-year record for largest volume of water in its reservoir. The Keban Dam Lake received 2.8 billion square meters of water in January, the highest level in the month of January since the dam’s completion in 1974. The water level reached 836 meters, just nine meters short of its maximum level.
Other dams in Turkey are also close to capacity. The largest reservoir in Turkey, the Atatürk Dam Lake in Şanlıurfa, rose to 531 meters, just shy of its 542 meter capacity. The second largest reservoir, the Karakaya Dam Lake in Diyarbakır, reached 683 meters out of a total capacity of 693 meters. According to the Ministry of Energy, this has caused an unexpected increase in electricity generation by hydroelectric sources and has decreased the need for electricity generation by thermal power plants using nonrenewable resources such as coal and natural gas.
According to data from the State Waterworks Authority (DSİ), water coming into the reservoirs was 40.1 percent higher in January than the same month last year, although it did not break the record for aggregate water collected.
Rise of Turkish wind energy
According to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), Turkey’s wind energy capacity increased from 147 megawatts (MW) in 2007 to 801 MW by the end of 2009, edging out Belgium, Norway and Poland to move from 16th place to 13th; however, it is still dwarfed by Germany’s 25,700 MW capacity.
