Kardemir Bozyaka Wind Power Plant
Clean energy from wind power
Aliağa District, Turkey*
Background
The construction of a wind farm will contribute to the sustainable development of Turkey‘s energy system by meeting the ever-growing demand for electricity in an environmentally friendly way. The project will contribute to the dissemination of state-of-the-art renewable energy technologies (REN). In this way, it will strengthen the pillars of Turkey‘s energy supply, which are based on an ecologically sound and domestically produced technology.
The project
The objective of the project activity is to inject carbon-neutral electricity into the Turkish power grid, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions by replacing electricity from mainly fossil fuel power plants. The situation prior to the implementation of the proposed project activity is represented by the current and expected power generation mix supplying electricity to the Turkish grid. This mix is clearly dominated by fossil fuel-fired power plants. This situation is essentially the same as the baseline scenario, i.e., the electricity supplied to the grid by the project activity would otherwise have been generated by the operation of grid-connected power plants and by the injection of new generation sources into the grid.
Social Impact
In terms of social impact, significant positive employment effects are expected, particularly during the construction and installation phases, and not only directly through the employment of temporary construction workers, but also indirectly. Material supplies such as foundations, cables and access roads will be procured locally, so the project will also contribute to the employment of outside subcontractors. The operation and maintenance of the wind farm also have positive employment effects. The experience of operating a wind farm in Turkey helps build capacity and know-how on state-of-the-art REN technology.
*Turkey
The country needs a broad climate movement
According to climate researchers, half the summer in Turkey could go by with heat waves in the future. Temperatures of more than 43 degrees on more than 48 days would be the result, according to the Meteorological Service in Turkey. Similar to what is already happening in the Gulf States, people would have to spend a lot more time in closed, air-conditioned rooms in order to reduce the health consequences of excessive body heat. If the ambient temperature is higher than the body temperature, this can become a stress factor for the human body. Especially for the cardiovascular system because the body can no longer regulate its temperature through sweating under these circumstances.
Air conditioning systems cannot be the solution here, as they are very expensive and the most affected people are low-income and older. These try to use fans, which, however, remain ineffective at temperatures above 35 ° C or exacerbate the effects of the heat.
If you now install air conditioning systems in large quantities, which consume an extremely large amount of energy (currently most of the electricity in Turkey is generated by burning fossil fuels), it would almost be like pouring oil into the fire of the climate problem.
For many years now, free initiatives have been calling for all open spaces in Turkish cities to be converted into green spaces (in Istanbul it is around 5 degrees hotter in urban areas with no green spaces than in districts with parks and lots of green!) In order to reduce the rise in city temperatures.
Climate researchers like Ümit Şahin are asking people to take action. He is committed to supporting initiatives such as Fridays for Future. Teaming up to build up enough pressure that can then change government policies. He sees it as the task of the population to make the fight against climate change an issue for the country's politics.
