New 60 MW geothermal field discovered in Turkey
Alexander Richter
13 Oct 2009
Turkey’s Zorlu Group, which own a power plant in the southwestern city of Denizli atop the country’s largest known geothermal field, has discovered a new 60 MW field as a result of its feasibility studies.
Reported last week locally, “Turkey’s Zorlu Group, which own a power plant in the southwestern city of Denizli atop the country’s largest known geothermal field, has discovered a new 60 MW field as a result of its feasibility studies.
The group, which currently owns a 17.4 MW plant on a field where it has held operation rights since Sept. 1, 2008, can establish another 60 MW plant. If the drillings confirm the feasibility study, then the K?z?ldere geothermal power plant’s total output will reach 77.4 MW.
The power plant will be able to generate electricity for 50,000 houses annually after reaching this power level. In the long run, investments will allow for the construction of a greenhouse, dry-ice production and other thermal facilities, with a chance to use the water at all heat levels.
Zorlu purchased the field due to speculation that it would yield richer resources and launched scientific studies with that aim, said Ali Kindap, deputy managing director of the firm. “These studies took time but eventually we obtained results concerning a certain part of the field. In line with the results, we have planned for an additional 60 MW facility.”
Drilling for $60 million
The drilling project will start next month, Kindap said. “Around 20 wells will be drilled and we will reach a depth of 3,000 meters.” There is a plan to begin operations of the new facility by August 2012.
Noting that the drilling budget of the project is around $50 million to $60 million, Kindap said the plant’s total expenditure, including rehabilitation of the existing plant, will total $250 million.
The firm aims to see the return on investment in 10 years, he said. “We have used a substantial part of the 22 million Turkish lira budget for the rehabilitation of the existing facility. The basic reason for this expenditure is that we regard the reservoir as a sustainable resource.”
Informing on the rehabilitation of the reservoir, he said that a marble and limestone blockage was removed. Thus, the capacity, which had fallen to 6 MW due to the blockage, was raised to 17.44 MW again.
The firm has also developed a system to inject the wastewater back into the reservoir. “We are making improvements to bring into the system the geothermal water that was previously discharged into the Menderes River,” he said.
Commenting on the Renewable Energy Law, which is still awaiting the approval of Parliament, Kindap said that a pricing survey to cover all of Turkey’s geothermal resources should be conducted. A price of 9 eurocents per KW would be appropriate for the electricity to be obtained from fields such as K?z?ldere or Germencik, he said.
The world’s electricity generation from geothermal energy is around 80 billion KWH. The top five countries include the United States, Philippines, Mexico, Indonesia and Italy. Although Turkey ranks seventh with its geothermal resource potential, it does not have the ability to compete with fossil-fuel resources, as 93 percent of these fields are at low and medium temperatures. But these fields are appropriate for houses, greenhouses and thermal tourism. For these applications, Turkey ranks fifth after China, Japan, the United States and Iceland.”
Source: Hurriyet Daily News
