PRESENT STATUS OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY AND ITS UTILIZATION IN TURKEY

1
PRESENT STATUS OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY AND ITS
UTILIZATION IN TURKEY

• Umran Serpen
• Dept. of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering of
  Istanbul Technical University

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OUTLINE

• INTRODUCTION
• THE STATUS OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY IN TURKEY
• ECONOMICS OF GEOTHERMAL UTILIZATION IN TURKEY
• GEOTHERMAL LEGISLATION IN TURKEY
• RESULTS

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INTRODUCTION

• Geothermal energy exploration started in early
  1960 in Turkey.
• At first, exploration efforts focused on high
  enthalpy fields for potential power production,
  and Kizildere and Germencik fields were
  discovered.
• Later exploration efforts resulted in discoveries
  of some middle enthalpy fields, such as
  Seferihisar, Simav, Salavatli-Sultanhisar, Tuzla,
  Dikili, Caferbeyli, etc however, those
  geothermal resources have not yet been thoroughly
  explored.
• With proper exploration methods and investment,
  some of them might end up with higher enthalpy
  fluids. There are geochemical evidences to
  support such situations in some of those fields.
  Recently, another high enthalpy field with 215oC
  temperature, namely, Kavaklidere geothermal field
  was discovered.

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GEOTHERMAL ENERGY IN TURKEY(Indirect Use)

• A conventional steam cycle power plant with 17.4
  MWe capacity was installed in Kizildere
  geothermal field and has been generating an
  average gross power of 10 MWe since 1984.
• Technologically superior an air cooled binary
  cycle power plant with gross capacity of 7.3 MWe
  has recently been completed in Aydin-Salavatli-Sul
  tanhisar and operating for more than 4 months.
• A decision was made to install another power
  plant with larger capacity in Aydin-Germencik for
  which reservoir assessment studies are being
  conducted, and 9-well drilling program will be
  started soon to add existing 9 wells. This power
  plant would be in line within 2-3 years.

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GEOTHERMAL ENERGY IN TURKEY(Indirect Use)
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GEOTHERMAL ENERGY IN TURKEY(Direct Use)

• Direct-use of geothermal energy in Turkey has
  mostly developed through district heating
  systems. First district system was installed in
  1987, and 11 others were followed during the
  period of 1991-2004.
• Direct-use capacity of district heating systems
  has reached to the total capacity of
  approximately 250 MWt. It is estimated that the
  district heating systems have served roughly
  35000 households

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District Heating Systems of Turkey.
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Major Greenhouse Areas in Turkey.
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Balneology in Direct Use

• There is another major area, namely balneology
  and swimming for the direct use. There are
  several health-spa and swimming pools in Turkey.
  Their power-use is difficult to quantify, control
  and register.
• Therefore, the thermal power requirements of well
  known major balneological sites together with
  some small ones were computed with available data
  and for several small sites were estimated on the
  basis of the known ones.
• Finally, a power requirement for balneology and
  swimming is estimated as 110 MWt.

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Total Direct Use in Turkey

• District Heating 253 MWt.
• Greenhouse Heating 142 MWt.
• Balneology Swimming 110 MWt.
• Total 505 MWt.

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Turkeys Geothermal Resource Base
Both estimates are very close except for the
category over 250oC. Since no resource has been
discovered over 250oC, second estimation fits
more to the real situation.
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GEOTHERMAL POTENTIAL OF TURKEY(Results of a
Stochastic Study)
Convertible Energy Categories of Turkey.
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TURKEYS GEOTHERMAL POTENTIAL(Results of a
Stochastic Study on B. Menderes Region)

• The expected accessible geothermal energy for B.
  Menderes region is found 5x1019 J and this is
  predicted from 18 known fields and occurrences.
• The basin simulation runs revealed that, if only
  half structures are productive, the predicted
  accessible heat is 5x1019 J.
• The expected available energy for electricity
  production is 2x1018 J. Under current technology
  only 3.19x1017 J.
• The expected convertible energy for direct use is
  3.5x1018 J whereas for electricity production is
  3.2x1016 J.

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TURKEYS GEOTHERMAL POTENTIAL(Summary)

• A potential of a few thousands of MWe (1000 to
  1500 ) at Menderes Massive
• A few hundredths MWe at around Central Anatolia
  and
• Few tens MWe at Quaternary Volcanoes of Eastern
  Anatolia regions.

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TRENDS IN THE UTILIZATION OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY IN
TURKEY

• Unlike the world trend, utilization of heat pumps
  and development of enhanced geothermal systems
  have not gained any footage in Turkey.
• Heat pump utilization is very limited due to its
  high capital costs. Carbon credits exchange may
  not be feasible given the high CO2 content of
  most of Turkeys high enthalpy geothermal
  resources.
• Although Kizildere geothermal power plant has
  long been in line for privatization, it has not
  been materialized (Oct.15th 2006).
• On the other hand, geothermal power plants and
  greenhouse heating seem to be very popular for
  the private sector.

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Economics of Power Generation in Turkey

• A stochastic study was conducted on economics of
  geothermal resources in Turkey (Serpen, 2005).
• As for electricity generation, this type of
  utilization looks profitable with the electricity
  selling prices of around 6 cents/kWh.
• The payout time for this type of investments
  reaches 7 to 8 years.
• The profitability increases with the quality
  (heat content) of resource and the magnitude
  (physical extent) of resources.

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Economics of District Heating

• A stochastic study was also conducted for
  district heating systems (several of them already
  installed). They do not seem to be profitable
  with actual low fixed rate heat tariffs.
• Several of them are studied, and only a one of
  them resulted in a marginally profitable
  business.
• Other studies, such as conceptual planning of the
  extension of Balçova district heating system,
  district heating project for Seferihisar-Cumali
  and Gediz geothermal resources have always
  resulted in negative NPV with actual tariffs and
  deposit costs imposed on people.

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Economics of Greenhouse Heating

• Greenhouse heating looks very profitable.
• It costs 5 million dollars to build a 100 decare
  greenhouse which pays out in two years.
• A power plant, which consumes roughly the same
  amount of heat costs 12 million dollars and pays
  out in 8 years.
• It may be more profitable to go into business of
  greenhouse than power production.

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Health-Spa Tourism

• Health-Spa business is thriving in Turkey, and
  our Spas were visited by 4 million domestic
  visitors. But, the Spas are generally not in good
  shape.
• Turkey has a lot of natural balneological sites
  each serving a different kind of illness. If
  these sites were rebuilt and proper health
  services provided, Turkey could attract a lot of
  foreign patients and visitors who do not have
  this sort of facilities in their countries, or at
  least at affordable prices.

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Why Our Geothermal Resources Have Not Been
Properly Developed

• There are many problems hindering the development
  of geothermal resources of Turkey. These can be
  summarized in 3 categories
• (1) technical,
• (2) economical, and
• (3) legislative.

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GEOTHERMAL LEGISLATION IN TURKEY

• There are several draft codes for geothermal
  energy
• One prepared by Ministry of Energy,
• Another by Ministry of Interior.
• Another by an opposition representative.
• Taking into account of legislations of major
  producers, this author has prepared a
  contemporary draft code for geothermal energy and
  presented to Ministry of Energy. This draft was
  based on Integrated Resource Management
  Philosophy.

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Problems of District Heating Systems

• The resources have been completely ignored and
  therefore, some resources could not supply
  sufficient heat to the oversized district heating
  systems (Salihli and Gönen towns).
• The worst has recently happened, and local
  government officials in Sandikli town connected a
  coal-fired boiler to existing geothermal district
  heating system. It is a real pity for the
  national geothermal industry.

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Problems of District Heating Systems

• The most serious problem in this sector is that
  some local government officials started to
  reconsider geothermal district heating systems.
• They seriously ponder on dismantling the existing
  district heating facilities and connect the
  natural gas to the houses for heating.
• On the other hand, they consider allocating
  geothermal resources to health tourism, which has
  lately been very popular and economically
  attractive.

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RESULTS

• In Turkey, economics of power generation looks
  sound, and new projects are in line.
• Economics of district heating systems with
  existing financial model and tariffs in Turkey
  are not in good shape, and they will not be able
  to compete with natural gas in the short and mid
  term.
• Turkey has suitable geothermal resources for the
  utilization of process heating, and this should
  be emphasized and taken into account by
  industrialists.

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RESULTS (cont.)

• The utilization of geothermal resources of Turkey
  in greenhouse heating seems economically sound,
  and industry has already sensed that trend.
• Taking into account of Turkeys rich geothermal
  resources she merits a contemporary geothermal
  legislation, but the existing official drafts of
  geothermal law are insufficient and far from to
  meet actual requirements of Turkey in many
  aspects.

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Acknowledgement

• The Author gratefully acknowledges the support
  provided by Zorlu Energy and expresses his
  gratitude to its manager.