Aegean Tech

Wind Energy

The country of Turkey has a land surface area of about 800,000 sq.km. (officially 774,815 sq.km.)i.e.roughly 80,000,000 hectares surrounded by the Black Sea in the North, the Marmara and the Aegean Sea on the West and the Mediterranean Sea in the South, giving it a very long sea shore. To give an example of the potentials of the wind energy, here we take the West part of the City of Izmir for an evaluation of the wind energy in which we are actively involved.

Between the 1,297 meter high Chios mountains and 1,218 meter high Karaburun (Akdað-Kocadað) mountains there exists an air corridor. This corridor makes a very special effect for strong winds to blow continuously.

Ancient people of the region had made very good use of it by making many wind mills to ground flour etc., the ruins of which still survived to our times.

There is also another effect of this prevailing wind is that the sky is very unusually clear at nights in Cesme. The prevailing winds coming long distances over the sea from North West direction carries rather a constant density, dust free air which makes the sky observation a pleasant hobby for summer nights. Also the dust free environment makes the area very suitable for High-Tech production. This is one of the reasons why Izmir High Technology Institude (IYTE) Campus is located in the Urla region.

The wind energy of the region is measured by wind speed, (Wind speed map), and is 7.5 meters per second (equivalent to 27 km/h or roughly 4 Beaufort) at a height of 10 meters above the ground. This wind speed corresponds to about 8.5 meters/sec. at wind mill hub heights of 50-60 meters. Please feel free to consult us for your needs Egetek Foundation

The abundance of wind resources of the area calls for utilisation of this natural and renewable resource. The energy inherent in the wind can be derived from the standard formula for kinetic energy;

E=½.m.v² where m is the mass and v is the velocity with which this mass is moving

in the case of wind m can be calculated as
m=µ.A.v

where as µ is the air density, A is te surface area through which the air is moving with a velocity of v

consequently the formula becomes
E=½.µ.A.v³

in summary the wind energy is proportional to the cube of the wind speed.

Cesme Peninsula covers an area of about 100,000 hectares, i.e. between the Municipalities of Seferihisar - Urla - Karaburun - Alacati - Cesme. Around half of this area is not suitable for construction or for agriculture. This leaves us with suitable land for wind mill installation ground of about 50,000 hectares. With wind mill technology of today we have very low noise at a distance of 100 meters from the wind mills. At 200 - 300 meters distances wind mill noise is very insignificant to cause any discomfort. Today's wind turbines generate no more than 50 dB at a distance of 85 meters (standard noise level in an office or a living room). At 400 m. the noise level falls down to 35 dB, that is hardly audible. Links for manufacturers and researchers.

Assuming only a part of the remaining land, let us say, 10,000 hectares could be utilized for installing wind mills, while still using the ground for agriculture, economically in Cesme Peninsula, and also taking 10 hectares (conservatively) of land need for each 1 megaWatt installed capacity calculation, we get approximately 1,000 megaWatt capacity. For each 1 MW unit installed capacity, for ease of calculation if we take an average of 3 millions kWh / year electricity production, which corresponds to 3 billion(3,000,000,000) kWh/year.

We assume 54 meter rotor diameter (2,300 sq.m) and assuming rectangular or square array installation, where it is necessary to leave 5-6 rotor diameters between the turbines to allow for wake losses. Therefore, for each turbine one would require a surface area of approx.160*160 (about 25,000 m² ideally) with the wind mill installed in the middle. In our calculations we take 1mW unit for each 10 hectares of land, (4 times bigger than the theoretically calculated land need) i.e. for each mW of wind mill 100,000 sq.meters of land is needed.

The Golden Dolphin Hotel in Cesme with 1,000 beds consumes of about 3,000,000 kWh/year electrical energy. The Vestas wind mill - 55kW - in the hotel produces 130,000 kWh/year approximately. The above example i.e. about 1,000 times the hotel electricity consumption is available from the wind is given to compare and to visualize the size of this potential locally.

We feel there are several advantages to promote clean wind energy using no fuel, rather than a big nuclear plant. Wind energy creates considerable local employment, since many components, if not all, can be manufactured locally, operating several wind plants in many locations. Eventually manufacturing them locally will create thousands of new jobs within the country and add a new product to export earnings.

Theoretically assuming that 1% of land (in densely populated Europe this figure is 0.5% ) of Turkey could be used for installing the wind mills in appropriate places the following hypothetical calculation could be made to arrive at a rough estimate. Remembering that under the wind mills still agriculture , animal breeding or any other function that does not interfere with each other can still be carried while the wind mill could operate without any deficiency.

Around 800,000 sq.kilometers is equal to 80,000,000 hectares. 1% of this land is equal to 800,000 hectares. Let us say we install 1 megaWatt unit wind mills on every 10 hectares of land. We find that a big manufacturing business potential can be created with 80,000 wind mills each costing about 1 million dollars with today's prices. Turkey is one of those very rare countries that so huge a land is available for wind energy on the border to Europe (North West part of Turkey is in Europe).

MAP of Installed Wind Mills in Turkey

This new business could create 80 billion-dollar-manufacturing business and with over 200 billions kWh/year electrical energy production. It is estimated that in the year of 2023 (100.Year of the Repuclic of Turkey) Turkey will need 600 billions of kWh/year. That means if we pursue an intelligent policy then in the year of 2023 about one third of the energy need of the country could theoretically be harvested from the wind.

Year 2023-Development Concept illustration, Urla-Alacati-Cesme where the modern planning is taking place.

Of course we must first believe in developing and making use of clean environmental energy while creating a higher quality of life and a lot of jobs. We can only then have the right of a well-balanced future.

Interested ? Why don't you have a look further ...

Links to Wind Energy Related Sites.

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