Kemerköy power station explained

Kemerköy power station is a 630 MW coal-fired power station in Turkey in Kemerköy, Muğla,[1] completed in 1985,[2] which burns lignite mined locally. Originally state owned by Electricity Generation Company it was sold in 2014 to Limak- IC İçtaş.[3] In 2020 it received 140 million lira ($) capacity payments.[4]

The smokestack of the facility has a height of 300 metres https://www.enka.com/portfolio-item/kemerkoy-thermal-power-plant/. It is the tallest in Turkey.

The area is a sulfur dioxide air pollution hotspot[5] and the air pollution caused by Kemerköy and neighboring Yatağan power station and Yeniköy power station is estimated to have caused 45,000 premature deaths.[6] It is estimated that closing the plant by 2030, instead of when its licence ends in 2063, would prevent over 5000 premature deaths.[7]

In 2019 local people protested against 48 villages being destroyed by expansion of the mine feeding the plant.[8] The company has been granted a permit to cut down Akbelen Forest to make way for the mine expansion, but in 2021 inhabitant of İkizköy village continue to protest and filed a lawsuit claiming that the permit should not have been granted without an environmental impact assessment.[9] The company says that Akbelen was allocated to the coal mine when the power plant was built, and that the General Directorate of Forestry defined it as an “industrial plantation area for 2019”.[10]

The plant was inspected by Istanbul Technical University in 2019 before new pollution regulations came into force at the beginning of 2020, and they made various improvement recommendations, such as better groundwater monitoring near the ash ponds. Despite improvements such as better air filters not being completed on all units, the plant was allowed to operate on a temporary licence in 2020, and in January 2021 the plant was granted a second temporary operating licence with a requirement to submit an environmental report to the ministry in June.[11] The plant was evacuated due to and slightly damaged by the 2021 Turkish wildfires.[12] [13]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Kemerköy Thermal Plant.
  2. Web site: Kemerköy Thermal Power Plant. 2020-06-20. en-US.
  3. Web site: Yeniköy Kemerköy Thermal Power Plants. Limak.
  4. Web site: TEİAŞ. 2021-08-05. TEİAŞ.
  5. News: Global SO2 emission hotspot database. August 2019. Greenpeace.
  6. Web site: The Real Costs of Coal: Muğla . CAN Europe.
  7. Curing Chronic Coal: The health benefits of a 2030 coal phase out in Turkey . Health and Environment Alliance . en-GB . 2022.
  8. Web site: Muğla'da köylerinin boşaltılmasını istemeyen köylüler: Bu memleket bizim!. birgun.net. tr. 2019-09-04.
  9. News: 9 September 2021. Akbelen Ormanı eylemcileri: 'Vicdanı olan hiç kimse bu ormanın kesilmesine onay vermez'. tr. Akbelen Forest activists: 'No one with a conscience would permit this forest to be cut down'. BBC News Türkçe. 2021-09-10.
  10. Web site: 2021-08-13. KAMUOYU BİLGİLENDİRME. Public notice. www.ykenerji.com.tr. tr.
  11. Özelleştirilmiş Termik Santraller ve Çevre Mevzuatına Uyum Süreçleri. Çaltı. Nuray. Bozoğlu. Dr. Baran. 2 June 2021. İklim Değişikliği Politika ve Araştırma Derneği. Aldırmaz. Ahmet Turan. Atalar. Gülşah Deniz. Privatized Thermal Power Plants and Environmental Legislation Compliance Processes. tr.
  12. Web site: Power plant in Turkey evacuated as wildfire closes in. 2021-08-04. www.aljazeera.com.
  13. Web site: 2021-08-05. Fire that reached Turkey power plant contained, others burn. 2021-08-05. AP NEWS. en.