Şırnak Silopi power station ( tr, Şırnak-Silopi Termik Santralı) is a 405 MW operational

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many ...

Silopi Silopi ( ku, Silopî) is a city and district of Şırnak Province in Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region, close to the borders of Iraq and Syria. The majority of its people are of ethnic Kurds. The district, composed of Silopi center, three to ...

, in

Şırnak Province Şırnak Province ( tr, Şırnak ili, ku, Parêzgeha Şirnexê) is a province of Turkey in the Southeastern Anatolia Region. Şırnak Province was created in 1990, with areas that were formerly part of the Siirt and Mardin Provinces. It borders ...

in the south-east of Turkey. It is fuelled with

asphaltite Asphaltite (also known as uintahite, asphaltum, gilsonite or oil sands) is a naturally occurring soluble solid hydrocarbon, a form of asphalt (or bitumen) with a relatively high melting temperature. Its large-scale production occurs in the Uintah ...

Operation

The plant was built in the early 21st century by Silopi Electric, which is part of the Ciner Group. It is fuelled with

from a nearby mine and serves over 650,000 people. Although its fuel is technically not coal it is regulated similarly; for example, the mining rights were tendered by TKİ, the state Turkish Coal Operations Authority. In 2020 the mining company said it planned an increase from 80 thousand tonnes per year to 250 thousand. Since the plant is further to the south-east than other fossil fuel

power stations in Turkey The most important power stations in Turkey are listed here. Turkey generates about 300 TWh of electricity per year. High Carbon Emissions Coal All operational coal-fired power stations over 50MW are listed below. Five plants were shut down ...

, interconnection with the electricity sector in Iraq may be possible. Despite abundant local renewable resources, under the

energy policy of Turkey Energy consumption per person in Turkey is similar to the world average, and over 85 percent is from fossil fuels. From 1990 to 2017 annual primary energy supply tripled, but then remained constant to 2019. In 2019, Turkey's primary energy ...

the plant is subsidised: it received capacity payments of 45 million lira in 2018, and 61 million in 2019. According to Ciner Group, in addition to the 1,000 direct employees in the plant and nearby mine, the plant supports 2,000 local jobs indirectly.

Environmental impact

It has been claimed that an increase in local illnesses is due to air pollution from the plant, and Hüseyin Kaçmaz, member of parliament for Şırnak, said in 2019 that the plant had damaged local people's health. Sulfur dioxide () and

nitrogen oxides Nitrogen oxide may refer to a binary compound of oxygen and nitrogen, or a mixture of such compounds: Charge-neutral *Nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen(II) oxide, or nitrogen monoxide *Nitrogen dioxide (), nitrogen(IV) oxide * Nitrogen trioxide (), or ...

() emissions were within the 2018 limits, but the SO₂ limit was halved to 200 milligrams per cubic metre from 1st January 2020. Turkey is not a signatory to the

Aarhus Convention The UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, usually known as the Aarhus Convention, was signed on 25 June 1998 in the Danish city of Aarhus. It entered int ...

on public access to environmental information, and it is not publicly known how much pollution is currently being emitted. Guidance issued to local middle school teachers by the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

describes the plant as environmentally friendly, but pupils are asked to note its advantages and disadvantages together with those of the mine. The power station emits more than 2

megatonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton (United States c ...

s (Mt) of

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...

() a year (of the 500 Mt total

greenhouse gas emissions by Turkey Coal, cars and lorries vent more than a third of Turkey's five hundred million tonnes of annual greenhouse gas emissions—mostly carbon dioxide—and are part of the cause of climate change in Turkey. The nation's coal-fired power stations ...

). As Turkey has no

carbon emission trading Emission trading (ETS) for carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHG) is a form of carbon pricing; also known as cap and trade (CAT) or carbon pricing. It is an approach to limit climate change by creating a market with limited ...

it would not be economically viable to capture and store the gas.

References

Sources

External links

Şırnak Silopi power station
on

Global Energy Monitor Global Energy Monitor (GEM) is a San Francisco-based non-governmental organization which catalogs fossil fuel and renewable energy projects worldwide. GEM shares information in support of clean energy and its data and reports on energy trends ...

Silopi Electric on Ciner Group
{{Power stations in Turkey Coal-fired power stations in Turkey Buildings and structures in Şırnak Province Environmentalism in Turkey

Operation

Environmental impact

See also

References

Sources

External links