| Title | How Did Turkey Succeed in Raising Public Awareness and Environmental Protection Along with Geothermal Developments |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hakan Alp SAHİLLER, Reyhan Nergis ÖNER, Ural HALAÇOĞLU |
| Year | 2020 |
| Conference | World Geothermal Congress |
| Keywords | Turkey, geothermal, renewables, energy, public welfare, environment, social impact, nature |
| Abstract | Turkey, as a foreign-dependent country, is trying to break its bond with fossil-fueled power plants in recent years. The recent government started a campaign and supported it with generous feed-in tariff mechanisms to use energy sources which country possesses inside its borders such as hydro, solar, wind, geothermal and biomass. For renewable energy concept, geothermal energy holds in a different ground comparing to others. Geothermal energy is the most vulnerable renewable energy source in means of public concerns. While foreseeing a powerful and instant development, any country should approach cautiously and develop the whole ecosystem with itself. This ecosystem development means both protection of the environment and improvement of the local communities. Turkish government and investor companies jointly succeeded a rapid geothermal development while protecting fauna, flora and human-rights with community friendly regulations and investment perspectives. In this article, we try to examine the cornerstones of this successful development process reaching 1283 MWe installed geothermal power and demonstrate all of the factors with concrete outputs. For the environmental protection; the authors will analyze how reduction of carbon emissions, forestation operations and greenhouse cultivation plays a huge role carrying out the social impact. On the other side; thermal tourism, balneology, local economy and employment growth will be unveiled for the public awareness and welfare. |