MB Holding, which established Turkey’s first private geothermal power plant in 2006, has commissioned its 3rd geothermal power plant DORA-3 in Aydın, which will provide service with an installed capacity of 34 MWe (megawatts). With the DORA-3 Geothermal Power Plant, which was opened by the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yıldız and made with an investment of 100 million dollars by Menderes Geothermal Elektrik Üretim A.Ş., MB Holding’s total installed geothermal power increased to 54 MWe in Aydın. During the opening ceremony of DORA-3, the groundbreaking ceremony of DORA-4, which is planned to be commissioned by the end of 2015 and will have an installed capacity of 17 MWe, was also held.
The opening ceremony of the DORA-3 Geothermal Power Plant, built by MB Holding – Menderes Geothermal Elektrik Üretim A.Ş., which operates in the fields of construction, textile, energy, ready-mixed concrete, perlite and greenhouse farming and established Turkey’s first private geothermal power plant, was held in Aydın on Saturday, June 21, under the patronage of the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yıldız, with the participation of Aydın, Gaziantep and Denizli protocols and hosted by MB Holding Chairman of the Board Muharrem Balat.
Speaking at the ceremony, MB Holding Chairman Muharrem Balat stated that they have undertaken an important task by pioneering technology and innovations by signing many firsts in the field of energy and establishing Turkey’s first private geothermal energy plant, and that they play a pioneering role in the development of geothermal energy resources in Turkey. He said that Menderes Geothermal Elektrik Üretim A.Ş. meets the increasing demand for electrical energy parallel to economic development with alternative, environmentally friendly, renewable and sustainable resources.
Balat; “Following DORA-1, Turkey’s first geothermal power plant with an installed capacity of 8.5 megawatts built in Aydın, and DORA-2, with an installed capacity of 11.5 megawatts, today we are opening DORA-3 with a capacity of 34 megawatts. As MB Holding, we believe that our investments in the geothermal field will have many social benefits. In addition to evaluating the geothermal field potential with power plant investments, we have brought dynamism to the economy of Turkey and especially the region, and brought geothermal energy, which is a domestic and clean energy source, to light. By bringing geothermal energy, which is an environmentally friendly energy source, to the economy, we have reduced carbon dioxide emissions compared to energy production from similar carbon fuels, and also contributed to the reduction of foreign exchange inputs spent for oil. To put it in numbers; 32,000 tons of carbon dioxide emission reduction is achieved annually in the DORA-1 project, 45,000 tons in the DORA-2 project, and 110,000 tons in the DORA-3 project. “With the start of operation, all of the electrical energy consumption required by Aydın Industry will be provided by DORA facilities. By means of the electrical energy produced by DORA facilities, approximately 35,000,000 USD in foreign currency will not be spent annually for natural gas and/or petroleum products,” he said.
Balat, reminding that Turkey is the first in Europe and the seventh in the world in terms of geothermal energy production capacity, emphasized the importance of reducing the environmental factor affecting Turkey’s future with global warming and fossil fuels with renewable clean energy such as geothermal. Balat added that they will increase their 54 MWe geothermal energy power in Aydın with a new investment and that the total energy production capacity of Menderes Geothermal Inc. will increase to 71 MW with the DORA-4 power plant planned to be put into operation by the end of 2015, and that 700 million kW/hour of electricity will be produced annually from the geothermal facilities within the company by the end of 2015.
Balat, who stated that Menderes Geothermal Elektrik Üretim A.Ş.’s goal is to increase geothermal investments with DORA-4 and DORA-5 projects and to obtain maximum benefit from Turkey’s natural energy resources, said: “As it is known, geothermal energy is a domestic, clean, renewable and sustainable energy source. We need to evaluate our domestic resources more. In this sense, we value each megawatt as a domestic resource. Thanks to this easy-to-use, reliable and environmentally friendly resource, our power plants provide our country with foreign currency (32 million USD) that should be spent on natural gas annually. Currently, the total installed capacity of geothermal power plants in Turkey has reached 241.7 MWe. This amount will increase to 500 MWe in Turkey in 2015 and 1000 MWe in 2020. These investments are very important facilities for our country.”
Following the DORA-3 power plant, MB Holding will continue its energy investments on geothermal fields and will continue its investment studies on integrated geothermal investments. The 41,000 m2 geothermal heated modern glass greenhouse investment in the Aydın region is the first project to be implemented among MB Holding’s integrated investments. The development and expansion of this project; in addition to the greenhouses, investments in the field of thermal health tourism are planned to be initiated in the second half of 2015. Balat; “We are advancing our thermal project, one of Turkey’s largest projects, with an expert team. Geothermal water is a rare blessing that should be used carefully and consciously, and will provide benefits in many areas at the same time. However, in using this blessing, the principle of ‘sustainability’ is essential. Everyone who invests in this field should take care to use the resource in the most efficient and correct way, and geothermal resources that serve Turkey’s energy supply security should be used meticulously. We are doing our best to ensure that everyone benefits from this blessing and provides added value to the regional and national economy in the most effective way,” he concluded.
Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yıldız, who attended the ceremony and started his speech by saying “Aydın is an Extremely Important Province for Us”, said; “First of all, I would like to express my happiness to be at such a ceremony. Aydın is an extremely important province for us. Aydın is one of the provinces with the highest amount of domestic and renewable energy resources. Being instrumental in the commissioning of such important investments in Aydın makes us happy. Of course, geothermal energy will make significant contributions to the future of the country. With the commissioning of such investments, there will hopefully be a 1 billion dollar decrease in natural gas imports in the coming years. 1 billion dollars is an important figure. We must make more efforts to transfer the continuation of these works to the next generations. I congratulate MB Holding Board Chairman Muharrem Balat and his family for making such beautiful investments and I hope these investments will be beneficial to Aydın and our country.”
After the ceremony, Minister Yıldız opened the power plants together with protocol members as well as Dora Pancar, the granddaughter of Muharrem Balat, after whom the power plants are named.
