Harnessing hydropower
September 25, 2012
Project goal: Generating electricity from water
Project type: Hydro power plant in the Elazig province
Project size: Installed capacity of 5 megawatts. 27,000 megawatts of electricity to be produced each year.
Project volume: $10 million
Carbon savings: 11,700 tons of C02 each year
Turkey faces a number of challenges on the energy front. The country is plagued by a chronic electricity shortage with frequent power cuts. It now has big plans to boost its electricity production and ease the energy crunch. The rivers of Euphrates and Tigris originate in Turkey, providing it with an abundant water supply. But so far, Ankara has made little use of its massive water potential mainly because of a lack of know-how in building and operating modern hydro plants that do not require controversial dam projects. That's slowly changing as a recently-built hydro power plant in the country's east shows.
A film by Miltiades Arsenopoulos