Turkey to explore more coal but with high air quality

By Nuran Erkul and Zeynep Duyar

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey, which attaches great importance to reducing carbon emissions and is one of the least air-polluting countries in the world, plans to continue to explore its domestic coal resources, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak said Friday.

Speaking at an opening ceremony of the first Coal Action Plan Workshop in Istanbul, Albayrak explained that Turkey will set air quality standards in coal production twice as high as Europe.

"The share of coal in electricity production decreased to 16 percent in the first nine months of the year when compared to 12 percent in 2015," Albayrak said.

He added that despite environmentalists lobbying against coal, its utilization represents 40 percent in the global energy mix.

Turkey will make full use of these resources while ensuring that the highest standards of environmental criteria are adhered to, Albayrak shared.

The Minister highlighted a new project in Cayirhan, a region in Turkey's capital Ankara where a coal power plant with 720 megawatts of installed capacity will be built.

He explained that air quality standard that will be implemented at this plant will supersede the standards in place in Europe.

"I want the opponents of coal to look at Cayirhan's environmental criteria. Today in Europe, the daily limit is 40 micrograms for one cubic meters of air, and the annual limit is set at 50 micrograms to be achieved by 2024. On the other hand, we set criteria in Cayirhan at 23 micrograms per day and annually for 18.07 micrograms," Albayrak noted.

"In terms of air quality standards, the nitrogen ratio is 200 micrograms per hour and 25.44 micrograms per year in the EU. In Turkey, we set this standard as 134 micrograms per hour and 25 micrograms per year," he continued.

Albayrak asserted that Turkey is determined to achieve air quality standards twice as high as those set in Europe and added, "Turkey is among the least air polluting countries in the world in terms of emissions."

-Seven billion tonnes of coal reserves discovered in 10 years

In the past 10 years, the seven billion tonnes of reserves which were discovered in Turkey acted as a springboard for Turkey's domestic coal production.

"We need to utilize these resources. There are many more coal reserves in other basins of Turkey. It is also important to note that these new reserves [discovered in the last 10 years] have higher calorific value than the old ones. This is very important economically and a factor that improves its quality and efficiency," he explained.

Albayrak affirmed that the country will focus on exploration in the upcoming period when Turkey’s state-owned mineral research company, MTA, will play an important role.

"The main focus [of the explorations] will be coal but we will also look for other mineral resources as well. As of 2017, our minimum target is to drill one million meters deep. We aim to increase this target later on because there are many places that we have not yet explored and we want to cover this ground," he concluded.