Works Starts on Turkish Coal-fired Plant

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- Turkey's largest private energy company Aksa Energy (Istanbul, Turkey), has started construction of a 270-megawatt (MW) coal-fired plant in the Bolu province in the north-west of the country.

The plant will be built in two, 135 MW phases with the first expected to be commissioned in October 2014 and the second one in March 2015. The ground-breaking ceremony for the plant was attended by Turkey's Minister for Energy and Natural Resources, Taner Yildiz.

Aksa received a loan of $240 million from banks Turkiye Is Bankasi (ISATR) AS and Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS (GARAN) to build the 270 MW plant. It will be repaid over 12 years, the company told reporters. The plant will play a key part in Aksa Energy's goal to increase its generating capacity from 2,500 MW today to 4,500 MW over the next five years. As of 2011, Aksa Energy owned 11 thermal and wind power plants across turkey, accounting for around 11% of the of the electricity generated by independent producers in the country.

''This facility will have a capacity of 270 MW and will produce 1% of Turkey's electricity,'' said Minister Yildiz.

In addition to the new Goynuk plant, Aksa has bought the rights to mine almost 40 million metric tons of brown coal, or lignite, in the Goynuk area for 35 years.

Minister Yildiz praised the use of Turkey's coal resources at the Goynuk groundbreaking ceremony, saying the country has enough coal to fire up 17,000 MW worth of plants. He added that using more of Turkey's own coal would help reduce the need for gas-fired plants and reduce the country's current reliance on gas imports.

Turkey has ambitious nuclear energy goals as well. In June, speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Middle East, North Africa and Eurasia, Yildiz announced that Turkey wants to have 23 reactors up and running by 2023. Turkey has no nuclear plants at the moment. For additional information, see June 11, 2012, article - Turkey Aiming for 23 Nuclear Reactors.

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