Electricity from Biomass and Hydroelectric Development Projects in Turkey

Abstract

The aim of biomass development projects is to identify whether it is possible to utilize biomass in the energy production sector, by substituting a portion of conventional fuel by biomass, to perform combined combustion. Electricity production from biomass has been found to be a promising method in the nearest future. Turkey's annual biomass potential is 117 million tons or 32 Mtoe. The future of biomass electricity generation lies in biomass integrated gasification/gas turbine technology, which offers high-energy conversion efficiencies. The major research and developments of the biomass power industry are focusing on gasifier scale-up, system analysis and site-specific commercial feasibility studies. Turkey has a total gross hydropower potential of 433 GW, but only 125 GW of the total hydroelectric potential of Turkey can be economically used. By the commissioning of new hydropower plants, which are under construction, 36% of the economically usable potential of the country would be tapped.