Locals file complaint against wind plants in Aegean province

Gülden Aydın - İZMİR

DHA Photo

A number or local residents in the Aegean province of İzmir’s touristic Çeşme and Karaburun districts have filed a lawsuit against the construction of wind power plants in their neighborhoods.

Çeşme and Karaburun have suitable wind power for the plants, however many of the plants are built in the districts without the proper permission, locals and activists have said. There are currently 280 wind turbines on the Çeşme peninsula and this number will increase to 490 when the plants still under construction are completed. In Karaburun, the number of wind turbines is 50, but permission has been received for the construction of 166 new turbines. 

Locals have filed lawsuits over the plants’ construction since 2013, while also complaining about the slow pace of the civil service and legal processes which results in the plants being completed before a court can make a ruling. 

Activists have criticized the cutting of trees along roads in the region to accommodate the transport of the turbines, while locals have lamented that their lands had been expropriated by the state to make way for the plants. 

Wind turbines last around 20 years and cost between 1 and 2.5 million euros. While the maximum distance between turbines is more than one kilometer in Europe, it is only 400 meters in Çeşme and Karaburun.