Wind Energy in Edirne, Turkey

Context

The Aegean and Marmara regions of western Turkey are ideal locations for wind generation, as they see higher average wind speeds than much of the country. The region’s first wind farm was built in Izmir in 1998.

As of 2018, the country was generating 20 TWh of wind energy annually, accounting for around 7% of Turkey’s total electricity – and wind power generation has been steadily expanding – doubling its energy production share since 2014.

Project

This Gold Standard wind energy project is operated by Soluglu WPP / Steag and plans to install 20 wind turbines (3 MW each) in Edirne, in the northwest of Turkey.

The wind power generated by these turbines displaces fossil fuel energy in the Turkish grid. When it is fully operational, the project will be responsible for 140,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions reductions each year. In addition, this will reduce the SOx (sulphur oxide) and NOx (nitrogen oxide) emissions which typically arise from the production of electricity in coal power plants.

Project area is large, but only a small amount of the project land is used for the turbines and service roads – the project is designed to be as un-intrusive as possible, with the rest of the project area left to be used by the local villagers, as it was before the project began.

Verification

This project is verified by the Gold Standard. You can view it on the Gold Standard registry here.

Climate solution #2

Wind turbines (onshore)

An increase in onshore wind from 3 to 4 percent of world electricity use to 21.6 percent by 2050 could reduce emissions by 84.6 gigatons of carbon dioxide. At a cost of $1.23 trillion, wind turbines can deliver net savings of $7.4 trillion over three decades of operation. These are conservative estimates, however. Costs are falling annually and new technological improvements are already being installed, increasing capacity to generate more electricity at the same or lower cost. Read more