Wind Energy

ARTICLE : How Europe supports "Green Power" Every country in Europe which supports the generation of renewable electricity has a different system for doing so. ARTICLE : Status of Wind Energy The developments in the utilisation of wind energy in recent years, and the development of the technology, its implementation and the growing industry in this sector.

Between the 1,297 meter high Chios mountains and 1,218 meter high Karaburun (Kocadag) mountains there exists an air corridor. This corridor has a very special effect on the air circulation in the area, which results in strong winds blowing continuously.

Ancient people of the region had made very good use of it by building many wind mills to ground corn etc., the ruins which can still be seen.

As a result of these prevailing winds the sky is unusually clear at nights in Cesme. The winds coming long distances over the sea from North West bring a rather constant density, dust free air which makes celestial 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 (IHTI), (IZTECH) or (IYTE) Campus is located in the Urla region.

The wind energy of the region is measured by wind speed, (Wind speed map) a very interesting site(Danish Research Center Risoe) 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 hub heights of 50-60 meters. You may consult further to our link, INTERWIND Swiss Engineering and Consulting.

The abundance of wind resources of the area calls for utilization 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 the 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 more than 100,000 hectares. Around half of this area is not suitable for construction or for agriculture. This leaves us with suitable land for wind mill installation 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 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 reasonable part of the remaining land, let us say, 15,000 hectares could be utilized for installing wind mills, while still using the ground for agriculture, or any other low height plants(up to 1-2 meters). Assuming 10 hectares of land needed for each 1 Megawatt installed capacity (installations in East-West arrays will require even less, because the prevailing winds in the Peninsula are mostly in north to south directions). We could potentially install about 1,500 turbines of 1 Megawatt each. Each of these 1 MW units could produce 3,3 million kWh / year. 1,500 MW then could produce a total of 5 billions kWh/year.


The Golden Dolphin Hotel in Cesme with 1,000 beds consumed about 3,000,000 kWh/year electrical energy in 1998. The Vestas wind mill - 55kW - in the hotel produces 130,000 kWh/year approximately. The above example i.e. about 1.600 times the hotel electricity consumption is potentially available from the wind is shown 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 potential for wind energy utilization in Turkey can be estimated as follows:

774,000 sq.kilometers is equal to 77,400,000 hectares. 1% of this land is equal to 774,000 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 77,400 wind mills each costing about 1 million dollars with today's prices.

This new business could create 77 billion-dollar-manufacturing business and with over 200 billions kWh/year electrical energy production. It is estimated that in the year of 2023, Turkey will need 600 billions of kWh/year. That means if we pursue an intelligent policy then in the year of 2023, the 100th year of the Turkish Republic, about one third of the energy need of the country could theoretically be harvested from the wind.

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 ... The first  wind mill farm of Turkey is ready to run

Links to Wind Energy Related Sites.

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Last Updated June 7, 1999
&#169 1997, Entropy Microsystems - EGETEK Incubator start-up company.