Landfill gas can meet electricity demand for one million homes in Turkey

Turkey may have found alternative energy to Russian gas.

Landfill gas (LFG) may help Turkey achieve its aim to diversify its methods for generating power, which would help the country to improve its green energy production and reduce its dependency on Russia and other foreign suppliers of oil and natural gas.

LFG could help provide more energy to residences and help combat global warming.

According to Mehmet Gür, CEO of the Ortadoğu Group, with landfill gas, Turkey can replace as much as 5% of its electricity production from Russian gas. The Ortadoğu Group operates four landfill gas-to-power production plants, which have a 50 MW (megawatt) capacity, in the northwestern Marmara region, reported the Daily Sabah. Gür said that the four plants provide the energy demand for as many as 266,500 residences. However, he added that with their current system the company can provide electricity for as many as one million residences. In addition to providing energy, Gür pointed out that the plants can also prevent the uncontrolled production and buildup of methane gas that comes from landfills, which is one of the worst greenhouse gases contributing to global warming.

An estimated 2 billion kWh of energy could be generated from landfill gas.

If all of Turkey’s garbage was processed in landfill gas plants, according to Gür, the potential energy production would be 2 billion kWh (kilowatt hours) annually. “The energy production in Turkey from landfill gas is around 180 megawatts from more than 20 facilities in 15 provinces.” He added that if they “take into consideration all the garbage that could be processed in Turkey, we can generate 5 percent of the electricity generated from Russian gas.” The president of Ortadoğu’s energy division, Ata Ceylan, said that using landfill gas in energy production is a suitable ecological and economical solution for processing trash. He explained that the government offers a guarantee of purchase from a base price for the production of electricity from renewables such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and hydro. Ceylan said that “Electricity production from landfill gas is being incentivized with 13.3 cents per kWh.” Landfill gas can be stored for up to 20 years to be used as energy production and does appear to be a promising green energy solution for Turkey. That being said, Gür believes that government incentives should be increased for energy production in the country’s smaller provinces.