YUNTDAG
Clean energy from wind power
Province Izmir, TURKEY*
Due to the strong economic growth in Turkey, the country's energy requirements have increased accordingly.
Generating this increased need by burning fossil fuels would lead to an immense increase in global climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions.
With strong and steady wind, the Turkish west coast is ideally suited for the operation of wind turbines due to its strong and steadily blowing winds.
The Yuntdag wind farm comprises 17 wind turbines with a rotor diameter of 90 meters and an output of 2.5 megawatts each. It is located about 60 kilometers north of Izmir.
Since it is still very difficult for private companies in Turkey to finance projects of this type, imports of components that are absolutely necessary on site have led to fluctuations in exchange rates, which has made it difficult to take out long-term loans, so the project could only be stabilized by selling climate protection certificates and be implemented.
44 new jobs were created during the construction of the wind farm. 12 permanent jobs were created for the operation and maintenance of the system. Employees receive further training at regular intervals.
The project improves the regional and national energy supply as well as the local infrastructure.
*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.
