Emba Hunutlu power station is a 1320
MW coal fired power station in Turkey in
Adana Province
Adana Province ( tr, ) is a province of Turkey located in central Cilicia. With a population of 2.26 million, it is the sixth most populous province in Turkey. The administrative seat of the province is the city of Adana, home to 79% of the r ...
.
it is the largest Chinese foreign direct investment in the country.
Despite opposition from many
environmental organisations the plant was started up in 2022 and burns
Russian coal
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
* Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and pe ...
as it is cheaper than other coal.
The plant is less than 2 km from another coal-fired power station,
İsken Sugözü.
History
The project was proposed in 2012.
In 2015 it was licensed, despite environmental protests,
[ and Shanghai Electric Power said it would be China's largest ever direct investment in Turkey.
In April 2019 a ]Belt and Road Initiative
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, or B&R), formerly known as One Belt One Road ( zh, link=no, 一带一路) or OBOR for short, is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in nearly 1 ...
deal was signed to build the 1320 MW power station[ It is also part of Turkey's Middle Corridor.
In June 2022 opposition Republican People's Party Adana deputy Burhanettin Bulut called for a Parliamentary inquiry, complaining that the power plant was about to be started up despite ongoing lawsuits and a one hundred thousand signature petition.]
Ownership
The project is a joint venture between Shanghai Electric Power (a subsidiary of China's State Power Investment Corporation), Avic-Intl Project Engineering Company (3%), and two Turkish local investors, Mete Bülgün, CEO of the joint venture and Adnan Demir (9.4% each)[ with Shanghai Electric Power holding 78%.]
Finance and economics
The finance is 20% capital[
In 2021 Turkey targeted net zero carbon emissions by 2053. According to Banktrack the project is struggling with finance.]
Subsidies
By 2020, according to Carbon Tracker, both new wind and solar power were cheaper than building new coal power plants; and they forecast that wind would become cheaper than existing coal plants in 2027, and solar in 2023: so they say that constructing the plant is a waste of money.
However the company benefited from value-added tax
A value-added tax (VAT), known in some countries as a goods and services tax (GST), is a type of tax that is assessed incrementally. It is levied on the price of a product or service at each stage of production, distribution, or sale to the en ...
exemptions of almost 3.5 billion lira["Coal & Climate Change - 2017,"]
Önder Algedik, Aug 2017 WWF say it will make a loss.
Construction
Test piles
Hemorrhoids (or haemorrhoids), also known as piles, are vascular structures in the anal canal. In their normal state, they are cushions that help with stool control. They become a disease when swollen or inflamed; the unqualified term ''hemo ...
have been constructed and in April 2019 Shanghai Electric Power said that "the successful signing of the facility agreement indicates that the project construction will enter into a fast-growth period".[ However construction of the coal silos was delayed.]
Employment
The company says it will employ 4000 people in construction and 500 in operation.[
]
Design and specification
The thermal power station would have 2x660 MW Ultra Super critical units with steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizat ...
pressure of 27 MPa and reheat steam temperature of 600°C.[
]
Coal supply
Imported coal is stored in 3 large sea side silos, and the plant can also run on local coal.
Electricity generation
Efficiency
The design is for gross efficiency up to 46% with a gross coal consumption rate less than 270 g/kWh
A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kWâ‹…h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bil ...
(7000 kcal/kg LHV standard coal).[
]
Cooling system
The plant would be cooled by water from Iskenderun Bay.
Waste products
Local air pollution control
Nitrogen Oxides
The selective catalytic reduction is designed to be more than 70% efficient, and according to the company will reduce NOx emissions to less than 100mg/Nm3.[
]
Sulfur Dioxide and Dust
The design is for a combination of electrostatic precipitators, flue-gas desulfurization and wet scrubbers to reduce dust emissions to less than 5mg/Nm3.[
]
Mercury
Mercury was not mentioned in the Environmental Impact Assessment
Environmental Impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the term "environmental imp ...
but has been estimated at 175.5 kg/year.
Health and safety
A public meeting was due to be held in January 2022 to discuss the environmental impact report for Emba Hunutlu, with the owners now adding 43 MW of wind and 37 MW of solar (the electricity for use on site), to the 1320 MW of coal power which had been due to open in 2021. The company say that they devote themselves to building a power plant with "no pollution". But environmental groups estimate that air pollution from the power station would cause an extra 50 early deaths per year.
Environmental effects
An expert report in 2020 concluded that the plant would be contrary to the Ä°skenderun Bay (Adana-Mersin-Hatay) Integrated Coastal Areas Plan's principles, and opponents say it contravenes the Biodiversity Convention
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is a multilateral treaty. The Convention has three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity (or biodiversity); the sustainable use of its ...
.
Water
According to WWF-Turkey the project threatens the loggerhead sea turtles and green sea turtles which nest on nearby Sugözü Beach. Quoting the project environmental impact assessment
Environmental Impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the term "environmental imp ...
as saying that the outgoing cooling water will be 7°C higher than the sea water, they say temperatures could exceed 35°C in summer and be fatal to the turtles.[
]
Dust
Turkey has no legal limit on fine particulate
Particulates – also known as atmospheric aerosol particles, atmospheric particulate matter, particulate matter (PM) or suspended particulate matter (SPM) – are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air. The t ...
(PM2.5) emissions. The Health and Environment Alliance say that TurkStat
Turkish Statistical Institute (commonly known as TurkStat; tr, Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu or TÜİK) is the Turkish government agency commissioned with producing official statistics on Turkey, its population, resources, economy, society, and cul ...
figures show respiratory disease
Respiratory diseases, or lung diseases, are pathological conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gas exchange difficult in air-breathing animals. They include conditions of the respiratory tract including the trachea, bronchi, ...
s have already increased in Adana Province, and that could be due to other coal-fired power stations.[
]
Greenhouse gases
Shanghai Electric Power Company says it is "sustainable power generation" but the power station will increase Turkey's greenhouse gas emissions: if operational according to its design capacity factor
The net capacity factor is the unitless ratio of actual electrical energy output over a given period of time to the theoretical maximum electrical energy output over that period. The theoretical maximum energy output of a given installation is def ...
and lifetime it will emit over 200 million tonnes 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 t ...
.
Opposition
TEMA Foundation filed a lawsuit in 2017 and in 2018 several other organisations under the grouping of Doğu Akdeniz Çevre Platformu (East Mediterranean Environment Platform) were in ongoing legal action in Ankara."Bilirkişiden ‘termik santral halk sağlığını bozar’ raporu"
Hürriyet, January 28, 2018
See also
*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 energ ...
* List of power stations in Turkey
* Electricity sector in Turkey
References
External links
Emba Hunutlu power station
on Global Energy Monitor
Banktrack
an
updates
Plan additions and revisions (Turkish)
{{Power stations in Turkey
Coal-fired power stations in Turkey
Buildings and structures in Adana
Protests in Turkey
Environmentalism in Turkey
Belt and Road Initiative