Economic Contributions and Environmental Effects of Geothermal Energy: Çanakkale-Tuzla Geothermal Example

Abstract

Today, energy is important, the value of renewable resource geothermal energy created by the economy is quite high. In addition, there are fewer environmental effects than fossil resources. Turkey has rich geothermal resources due to its location on the Alpine-Himalayan folds. Geothermal resources in Turkey are used in electricity generation, in industrial, agricultural, residential heating and health tourism. The Çanakkale-Tuzla geothermal area, which is one of the geothermal areas in Turkey and located on the Biga Peninsula, is important due to the realization and privatization of electricity production from geothermal power. The research was carried out in order to examine the environmental effects and economic contributions of geothermal energy in Çanakkale-Tuzla. Çanakkale-Tuzla Geothermal Power Plant is Turkey's 776th with 7.50 MWe installed power and Çanakkale is the 16th largest geothermal power plant. The facility is also Turkey's 30th largest geothermal power plant. Tuzla Geothermal Power Plant has an average of 46,090,778 kilowatt hours of electricity production and can meet all the energy needs of 13,925 people in daily life. Annual electricity production of Tuzla Geothermal Power Plant is increasing continuously from 2012. According to 2015 data, this plant has achieved 1.04% of the provincial production with 48.298.037 production. Similarly, according to 2015 data, Tuzla Geothermal Power Plant has received 0,018% of the total electricity generation in the country.