Two new biomass power plants with a total capacity of 17.2 megawatts (MW) began operations in Turkey's Aegean city of Aydin and in the southeastern city of Sanliurfa, Turkey's Global Investment Holdings, operator of the plants announced on Friday.
The company said in a statement that the plant in Aydin will use cotton straws left after harvesting to produce 12 megawatts of installed electricity capacity.
The plant will initially produce 80 million-kilowatt hours of electricity per year, sufficient for the needs of nearly 30 thousand households, with the intention of doubling this capacity next year.
The biomass plant in Sanliurfa with an installed capacity of 5.2 megawatts will use agricultural biomass and animal waste to produce electricity, supplying the needs of approx. 15 thousand households.
Its yearly production capacity is set to be 35 million kilowatt-hours, the company noted.
'It is possible to produce above 5 thousand megawatts of electricity from biomass in Turkey,' Global Investment Holdings' Chairman Mehmet Kutman was quoted as saying.
'Turkey holds great potential in this field as the country has wide agricultural land and livestock. We will extend the electricity production from biomass in Turkey, which is very widespread abroad. Our subsidiary Consus Energy's activities in this field will develop quickly and substantially,' he asserted.
Consus Energy's CEO Atay Arpaciogullari confirmed plans to invest nearly $400 million in biomass to bring 250 megawatts of installed capacity online by 2020.
'We will focus on the areas with high agricultural waste in Turkey. With the finalization of our planned investments, we expect to produce 1.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity production per year,' he explained.
By Ebru Sengul
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr