Türkiye working to diversify renewable energy resources

ISTANBUL

The Agriculture and Forestry Ministry is working on projects aimed at utilizing geothermal energy resources, particularly in urban agriculture, while officials are looking into ways to boost biomass production in rural areas.

The ministry favors the specialized greenhouse-organized industrial zones based on geothermal heating (TDİOSB) as the more appropriate model.

This model facilitates the best use of geothermal energy and helps to undertake market-focused planned production.

Infrastructure work for such 16 TDİOSB has been completed for plant production. Some eight of the geothermal heating greenhouses are located in the districts of the Ağrı, Aydın, Denizli, İzmir, Kütahya, Nevşehir, Aksaray and Kayseri provinces.

Officials have also chosen the locations to build those facilities in the provinces of Çanakkale and Balıkesir.

Meanwhile, the ministry is working on a project to develop a specialized aquaculture-organized industrial zone in the Karataş district of the southern province of Adana. It will be the first and only aquaculture-organized industrial zone in Europe.

The production at the Adana facility will be around 60,000 tons annually and contribute some $250 million to the country’s exports, according to officials from the ministry.

Meanwhile, the Agriculture Ministry is teaming up with the Energy Ministry to offer alternative energy resources to rural areas that currently do not have access to natural gas.

As part of those efforts, the mass production of biogas units that generate energy from cattle waste will be launched soon. The gas produced by that equipment will be offered for use in kitchens in rural areas.

Türkiye has a large biogas production potential, Ali Rıza Öner, a renewable energy expert, told the daily Milliyet.

“The electricity installed capacity based on biomass resources reached 2,172 MW as of end-June, which corresponded to 2.14 of all installed capacity,” he said, noting that those resources provide power to some 4.5 million homes.

The provinces of Konya and Erzurum account for 5.1 percent and 4.75 percent of total biogas energy production, respectively, Öner noted.

Istanbul ranks first in terms of biogas facilities capacity, followed by the provinces of Balıkesir, Ankara, Samsun and Antalya, Öner added.

The Türkiye Electromechanics Industries (TEMSAN), operating under the roof of the Energy Ministry, has developed Biotem, which produces biogas from organic wastes. One Biotem unit can generate energy from three cattle in a month, which is equivalent to 12 propane cylinders used in kitchens. The prototypes of Biotem are currently being used in 10 provinces.