Mosque in Bursa to go environmentally friendly

BURSA - Hürriyet

DHA Photo

A mosque set to be built in the western province of Bursa will use solar and wind power to produce electricity. Nilüfer Trade Center Mosque, which is set to be completed in 2015, may be the first mosque in Turkey that produces and uses renewable energy. Çelik Erengezgin, the architect of the mosque project, believes that the project will be an example for other mosques.

Solar panels will be placed on top of the mosque. A wind turbine will be installed on the minaret. Also snow and rain water will be collected for the worshippers’ water needs. Erengezgin said the mosque will produce its own energy and sell what it does not use. “The mosque will produce 120 kW of electricity but consumes only 50 kW. The remaining amount can be sold to the state.”

Erengezgin also said Turkey’s Religious Affairs Department had responded positively to his project.
Erengezgin said he also wanted to produce electricity from the pressure exerted on the floor by the worshippers during prayers. This is not part of the current project but he hopes to implement it also, he said.

“We will tell the worshippers, ‘You can charge your cell phones here, because you have produced this energy [while praying on the floor of the mosque].’”

Ateş Uğurel, a co-founder and partner of iRES Energy, said Turkey could produce 400 megawatts of electricity from mosques if approximately 80 mosques produced renewable energy. “This number is close to 600 megawatts, the amount of solar power that will be licensed in 2013,” said Uğurel.

Hasan Köktaş, the head of the Republic of Turkey Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK), said not only mosques, but also private schools, universities, sports complexes and many other facilities are applying to produce their own energy.