A new regulation from the ministry was recently announced to collect opinions and critiques for improvement, and the General Directorate of Electrical Power Resources Survey and Development Administration (EİE) will begin considering applications for establishing wind energy plants on fields that have potential for power densities of at least 300 Watts per square meter (W/m2).
Wind energy investments will be inspected one time during the construction phase, and the EİE will give full support to the investors in measuring the average wind power of the field, ground survey and the feasibility of the plant.
"The Regulations on the Assessment of the Wind Energy Potential" outline the provisional methods and basics to fully evaluate Turkey's wind energy capacity. According to these new regulations, the EİE will determine every region with at least 300 W/m2 wind power density and tag these places as "wind resource fields suitable for establishing power plants." The ministry will then initiate contacts with relevant state institutions so that the ground building schemes are prepared in way not to collide with possible wind energy power plants. The EİE will publish on its Web site all the basic information for these sites, such as the name of the field plot, Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) geographic coordinates, topographic features, wind characteristics, power densities, reference established power and possible quantities of energy that can be produced. This information will also include the property, usage and transportation conditions of the sites, as well as their relations with the surrounding areas.
Investors may also propose certain plots to the EİE for plant construction. These companies will submit documents to the EIE for "technical opinions" on their projects before they are presented to the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) for licensing.
All applications to construct plants on the determined plots will be taken into delicate consideration. If only one company applies to establish a power plant on a plot, this company will become the "candidate investor." If more than one company apply for one particular site, their projects will be analyzed and the first company to promise the most amount of energy will be assigned status as the main candidate. If a second company proposes to generate 90 percent of what the leading company pledges, it will also be considered a candidate and the two will compete for licensing before the EPDK.
Any company to secure a production license from the energy watchdog most submit their eventual projects to the EİE at least 60 days before they begin construction. These projects will be controlled by the EİE within the following 30 days guarantee necessary changes for them to be in line with existing regulations. After that the EİE will write a letter of accord and the companies will be able to request changes in the projects at any time under the supervision of the EİE.
Two new geothermal sites in Aydın
Another push for alternative energy is going on in the area of geothermal energy. The Mineral Research and Exploration Institute (MTA) has come to the final phase of its work in Aydın, an Aegean city renowned for rich geothermal resources, and two sites have been readied for drilling. The two wells will be drilled 1,000 meters and 1,300 meters into the earth. The company to conduct drilling will be selected through an auction to be held on Aug. 28. The exploration works are scheduled for completion in 120 days.
Enerjisa completes work for power plants
Enerjisa, a subsidiary of Sabancı Holding, one of Turkey's largest industrial conglomerates, has nearly completed its preparations to establish two new energy plants with a total capacity of 450 megawatts (MW) in Adana, a southeastern Anatolian city. This move is considered to be an important initiative as it is a private investment depending on domestic resources. Combined the power plants will be Turkey's second-largest thermal facility after Elbistan and will use coal reserves from Adana's Tufanbeyli district. The region is estimated to have 500 million tons of coal reserves, half of which belong to Enerjisa. The plants will generate 3 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per year. According to technical surveys and analysis during the project phase, their construction will be finished in four years.
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