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Meet Turkey’s geothermal sector at the 4th IGC Turkey congress, 6-8 Nov. 2019

Meet Turkey’s geothermal sector at the 4th IGC Turkey congress, 6-8 Nov. 2019 World Bank workshop at IGC Turkey 2017, Izmir (Source: IGC Turkey)
Alexander Richter 15 Oct 2019

With an installed geothermal power generation capacity of more than 1,500 MW, Turkey continues to be one of the hottest geothermal markets. In its fourth edition, the IGC Turkey Geothermal Congress and Expo will again provide the opportunity to meet and discuss opportunities and challenges.

When ThinkGeoEnergy and our German partner Enerchange looked into how one could bring the Turkish and international geothermal sector together, the idea of an international congress and expo was born.

In June of 2016, we held the first IGC Turkey Geothermal Congress & Expo. At the time the geothermal power generation capacity in Turkey was at around 670 MW, already quite an increase from an installed capacity of around 30 MW back in 2008. Who would have thought that since then Turkey has broken into the 1 GW Geothermal Country Club with an installed geothermal power generation capacity of more than 1,500 MW as of today.

ThinkGeoEnergy is currently working on an update on the capacity overview for the world and will share this soon here on the website.

The geothermal sector in Turkey though does not stay free of challenges. Resource management, emissions, uncertainties about the impressively successful feed-in-tariff and more have been key topics for the sector. But growth continues with around 4-5 geothermal power plants having come online in the last few months alone.

With low enthalpy geothermal systems predominant in Turkey, the geothermal power plants are predominantly binary systems with Organic Rankine Cycle technology.

Here a few highlights from our initial analysis on the Turkish geothermal market.

  • Overall installed geothermal power generation capacity: around 1,550 MW
  • Share of ORC turbine technology: 80% (20% Flash)
  • Market share of turbine technology: Ormat more than 50% and around 65% for ORC technology plants
  • New market comers Exergy and EGESIM have made some strong inroads with Exergy about 24% market share for ORC technology and EGESIM with momentum and several new plants coming online

Details about the Turkish market will be published in a Market Brief and full-fledged market report on the Turkish geothermal market later this year.

To learn more about the IGC Turkey Geothermal Congress & Expo, visit the event website. The program is currently being finalised, a draft will be shared soon.