Upstream hydroelectric dams have already inhibited the recovery of Iraq’s legendary Mesopotamian Marshes. A massive dam currently under construction in Turkey may wipe them out completely.

For the next two months, I’ll be taking a break from my usual Green Prophet posts to report on a transnational environmental issue: the Ilısu Dam currently under construction in Turkey, and the ways it will transform life along the Tigris River. My trip is funded by a National Geographic Young Explorer Grant and the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Turkey’s hydroelectric dams are notorious for stirring resentment around its region. The impacts of some of these projects are confined to Turkey — but they still have the potential to inflict terrible damage on Turkey’s own ecosystems and inhabitants.

With a 2-GW power generating capacity, the Ilısu Dam is the biggest hydroelectric dam currently under construction in Turkey, but it is by no means the only one — 18 have so far been built under the scope of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), a massive development program approved by the Turkish government in 1982. Several more dams besides Ilısu are expected to be completed as part of GAP in the next five years.

In 2011, the UN issued a report condemning Turkey’s Tigris and Euphrates River hydroelectric dams for violating the human rights of downstream countries, including Iraq. That’s why I’ve begun my expedition in Basra, near the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, where my regular dispatches from the expedition will appear on the National Geographic Newswatch website. Here’s an excerpt from the first post, filed today from Basra, Iraq:

Few places illustrate the vitality of water more starkly than Southern Iraq.

The region that gave rise to human civilization as we know it, the heartland of ancient Mesopotamia, the original referent of the Garden of Eden – Iraq’s lower third has been many things, but today it is the site of a wrenching ecological and human struggle.

Driving north from Basra along the Shatt al-Arab, the waterway that forms at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, desert engulfs you. The only patches of color on the landscape are posters for Iraq’s April 20 provincial elections.

As the road branches and you turn northwest, following the route of the Euphrates away from the Tigris, the river takes some time to appear.

The Euphrates no longer extends all the way to the Shatt al-Arab, according to Jassim Al-Asadi, director of the Southern Iraq branch of the environmental NGO Nature Iraq. It has been diverted back into the Awhar, or Mesopotamian Marshes: a vast wetlands nestled into the crook of the Tigris and Euphrates confluence.

For millennia, Marsh Arabs lived in these marshes in reed huts, hunting and keeping water buffalo for sustenance. But in the 1990s, the marshes were drained by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, displacing hundreds of thousands of Marsh Arabs. After the fall of Hussein, the marshes began to come back, aided by the efforts of Nature Iraq.

But in 2007, a massive drought hit the area, and the levels of the Tigris and Euphrates have been falling ever since, the water loss exacerbated by more than 40 new upstream dams that have come online in the past three decades. In the central marshland district of Chibayish, where Al-Asadi was born, he says the population dropped from 60,000 to 6,000 in just three decades.

:: National Geographic Newswatch

Read more about hydroelectric dams in Turkey:

Hydroelectric Dam Threatens “Ecological Massacre” in Turkey

Turkish Cabinet Invokes Wartime Law To Seize Property For Hydro Projects

Turkish Water Projects Stirring Resentment Around the Region

Turkey’s Dams Are Violating Human Rights, UN Report Says

ITurkeyTurkeymage by Julia Harte

The post Tracking the Impacts of a Hydroelectric Dam Along the Tigris River appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Birdmen of Istanbul, a film by Ali Naki Tez, follows the reclusive, fascinating old men who have devoted their lives to tending Istanbul’s songbirds. The documentary opens on two old men discussing a mysterious ailment. It alienates you from your family, your work, your regular social circle, they say, before revealing the culprit: bird disease. Not bird flu, but an obsession with birds so intense that it has brought grown men to tears, bankrupted others, and lifted others to transcendent heights of joy.

An ecological message

Tez’s film, which can be watched in its entirety on his website, does more than reveal the intricate details of the lives of Istanbul’s songbird owners and enthusiasts, though that is the main focus of the film.

Most of the city’s birdmen are at or past retirement age, and their passion for songbirds harkens back to an earlier age in Istanbul’s history. The practice of rearing songbirds used to be the domain of Istanbul’s Greek and Armenian minorities, but passed on to the Turks in the mid-20th century when many of those minorities left the city. One man mournfully recalls letting his birds fly free during World War II, when rations prevented him from buying their food.

More surprising in this collective memory of the city, however, is the extent to which wildlife penetrated the city just a few decades ago. Many of Tez’s subjects describe hunting for birds around buildings that now adjoin highways, or in meadows that are now factory complexes.

Not all environmentalists would admire the birdmen of Istanbul. For one thing, many flout the ban on catching and caging wild goldfinches and greenfinches, which are endemic to Turkey. But their devotion to these creatures reflects an appreciation for the natural world that is very often lacking in modern Turkey.

“People used to feed birds like they grow flowers in pots,” says one man of the former prevalence of bird rearing.

The world of the birdmen

Tez interviews birdmen all over the city, with particular attention to the Istanbul cafes that are devoted to birdmen and their pets. Like any male-dominated cafe in the city, the birdmen lounge around small tables gripping tulip-shaped tea glasses, swapping stories — the only difference being the covered cage on each table, and the fact that many of their stories revolve around a particularly prized bird.

Much of the documentary focuses on the quality that makes these birds so bewitching: their songs.

Watch the entire Birdmen of Istanbul movie below:

The birdmen can imitate a remarkable variety of sounds that emanate from the finches, ranging from melodic mating calls to more drum-like aggression sounds. Some of the birds, according to the birdmen, are “broken”, meaning that their call stutters or hits false notes. A birdman with a broken bird can expect to be thrown out of a birdmen cafe.

To most, the idea of a bird warbling competition is slightly absurd. But when Tez films one at the end of the documentary, the three minutes of pure birdsong takes on a whole new meaning, and the apprehension of the contestants’ owners makes perfect sense. For each, the event represents a culmination of an endeavor that has consumed his life, and a passion that makes it worth living.

Read more about wildlife in Turkey:
Chemical Waste Destroying Turkey’s Historical Bafa Lake Reserve
Hydroelectric Dam Threatens “Ecological Massacre” in Turkey
In Black Sea Village, Turks Use Bird Language Instead of Cell Phones
Banded Israeli Bird Suspected of Espionage in Turkey

Image via The Birdmen of Istanbul

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Pollution is many-pronged problem

Untreated wastewater from factories in the town of Bafa, which lies east of the lake, is being dumped in the lake, according to Turkish paper Hürriyet Daily News.

At the lake’s western end, a fish farm is also releasing waste into the water. Plans for a second farm are reportedly underway, according to Professor Erol Kesici, a professor of aquaculture and a spokesman for Turkey’s Ecosystem Protection and Nature-Lovers’ Association (EKODOSD).

Perhaps most destructive, Lake Bafa’s main water source, the Büyük Menderes River, has become increasingly salty ever since it was diverted for irrigation use in 1985. The salinization of the river and the Büyük Menderes Lake have lowered the fertility of nearby fields, and have added an unpleasant odor to the lake, making it a less attractive destination for tourists.

Pollution solution?

Kesici recommends that Turkey’s state water works (DSİ) treat Bafa Lake with biological cleaning systems to eradicate the pollution. Otherwise, he warns, it could turn into another Büyük Menderes Lake, with the damage from the pollution spreading far and wide around the region.

“Bafa Lake’s water ecosystem environs, river basin and soil structure is the best and cheapest purifier for the environment,” he told the Hürriyet. 

A team from the DSİ has taken samples from Bafa Lake and will test them to determine the exact causes of the pollution. Kesici hopes the team works quickly. By the summer, when Bafa Lake isn’t receiving much fresh water in the form of rain, he points out, the problem could get much worse.

Follow İzmir’s model?

In tackling the pollution at Bafa Lake, local authorities would do well to follow the model of another region on Turkey’s Aegean coast: İzmir.

The Gulf of İzmir was used as an open sewer system beginning in the 1960s. But in 2000, İzmir’s municipal government initiated the Big Gulf Project to clean it up. Those efforts are just now paying off, as recent underwater photos showed remarkable marine life returning to the area.

The İzmir clean-up effort did require major investments by its municipal government — investments that not every city in Turkey is rich enough to make. But if  the historical value and tourism potential of Bafa Lake and its surrounding nature reserve were quantified, Muğla’s local authorities would find it an investment worth making as well.

:: Hürriyet Daily News

Read more about nature conservation in Turkey:
Life Returns To Gulf — Once A Sewer On Turkey’s Aegean Coast
Istanbul’s Natural Oases: The Atatürk Arboretum and Belgrade Forest
Hydroelectric Dam Threatens “Ecological Massacre” in Turkey
Polluting Paradise Documentary Follows Turkish Village’s Battle Against Invading Garbage

Image via smayda

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There are currently 1.6 million automobiles on Istanbul’s roads, according to Embarq Türkiye — and each day, 640 more are registered.

Following British and German models, the Turkish Finance Ministry has begun designing a new scheme for taxes on motor vehicles and their purchase, reports Turkish paper Hürriyet Daily News. Under the plan, the taxes will be based on the amount of pollution emitted by a vehicle, rather than the engine capacity and age of the vehicle, as used to be the case.

Environmental incentives

In the UK and Germany, vehicle taxes are based on amount of CO2 emitted per kilometer traveled. Transportation accounts for nearly one-third of all CO2 emissions in the European Union.

But since 1990, overall greenhouse gas emissions in the EU have decreased — unlike Turkey, where they doubled between 1990 and 2009. Furthermore, it has become more expensive to fuel a vehicle in Turkey than nearly anywhere else in the world; last year, the price of gasoline at the pump reached approximately $10 per gallon in Turkey.

Turkey has made some efforts to reduce emissions from transportation, mainly on the research side. In July 2011, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) hosted Turkey’s first alternative energy vehicle races, showcasing prototypes of cars fueled by solar power and hydrogen.

The proposed emissions-based tax on vehicles, however, would be a far more sweeping and effective policy for quickly reducing Turkey’s transport-related emissions.

No extra tax burden?

Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek emphasized to Hürriyet that the goal of the new emissions-based taxes is “not to raise income… [but] to leave a clean environment for future generations.” To prove this point, Şimşek added that the taxes on engine capacity and vehicle age might be reduced so that the emissions-based tax can be as high as possible without burdening consumers with too much added tax.

Furthermore, the new taxes will only apply to cars manufactured after the regulation has been decided and put in place. There is no word on when the new tax scheme will be complete.

Fuel-efficient cars are nowhere near as popular in Turkey as they are in Western Europe, though some have penetrated the Turkish market. The prices of automatic hybrids have kept Turkish demand for them low, but in 2011, the world’s first manual-gear hybrid, the Honda CR-Z, arrived in Turkey for the price of $30,000.

Hopefully, the new taxes will boost consumer interest in more fuel-efficient cars. To fully tackle Turkey’s transportation emissions, however, the public transit and bike-friendly infrastructure of its biggest cities must be improved.

:: Hürriyet Daily News

Read more about the environmental side of transportation in Turkey:

With Some Advice From the Dutch, Istanbul Tries to be More Bike-Friendly

Where Can You Find the Most Expensive Gasoline in the World? Probably Turkey.

World’s First Manual Gear Hybrid Introduced to Turkish Market

Renewable-Energy Cars Heat Up in Turkey

Turkey Avoiding Greenhouse Gas Reduction Despite Rapid Increases in Emissions, New Report Finds

Image via adstream

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Hundreds of Turkish activists formed a human chain across a bridge over Istanbul’s Golden Horn on March 10, the day before the second anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that triggered the world’s second biggest nuclear energy accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. Turkey’s government expects work to begin on the country’s first nuclear power stations this year.

“No to Nuclear”

The activists, members of the Turkish Anti-Nuclear Platform (NKP) stood behind a banner reading “No to Nuclear” in the languages of all the countries that have expressed interest in building a nuclear power plant in Turkey, including Russia, South Korea, Japan, China, and Canada.

Turkey’s two planned nuclear power stations are set to be located at Akkuyu on the southern Mediterranean coast and Sinop, by the Black Sea. The design for the Akkuyu plant, on which construction is expected to begin this year, was revealed in July 2012.

At Sunday’s anti-nuclear event, as reported in Turkish independent media center Bianet (in Turkish), a spokesperson for the NKP gave a press statement explaining why the group opposes nuclear power in Turkey.

Not only did the disaster cost Japan hundreds of billions of dollars in damages and force 160,000 people to abandon their homes, said the statement, the consequences of Fukushima will stay with Japan for many years to come:

“Even today, high levels of radiation are being found in Japan’s soil and water… Mutations seen in the region’s butterflies are an omen of health problems that will be experienced in future years. According to the results of health screenings from Fukushima province released on Jan 21 2013, 44% of 95,000 children displayed thyroid abnormalities.”

What the nuclear disasters of the past several decades have taught the world, according to the NKP, is that “there is only one way to prevent nuclear disasters: don’t build nuclear power plants.”

Turkish PM “doesn’t take nuclear threat seriously”

Shortly after the Fukushima disaster, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave a statement that anyone who wanted to live without risk could “not build crude oil lines in their country and not use gas in their kitchens.”

Despite the fact that many countries abandoned nuclear projects after the Fukushima meltdown, the NKP statement pointed out, Turkey charged ahead on its own plans to develop nuclear power.

The NKP is concerned, according to the statement, that Erdoğan “considers the nuclear threat equivalent to that of a gas explosion. It’s obvious that the government doesn’t take the nuclear threat seriously.”

Turkey not ready for nuclear?

A recent Greenpeace investigation into Turkey’s Nuclear Energy Institute (TAEK) and its careless response to high radiation levels at an abandoned lead factory used as a playground, raise further concerns over Turkey’s readiness to handle the consequences of nuclear energy.

If the Akkuyu plant is built as planned, for example, Russia has promised to ship all the waste from it back into Russia to be processed. But doing so, as the NKP statement pointed out, would require the waste to be loaded onto ships passing through the already over-crowded Bosphorus Strait, which bisects Istanbul.

In the event of an accident, not only would the Istanbul fishing industry essentially end forever, this city of nearly 20 million would be exposed to nuclear waste, with potentially catastrophic results.

:: Bianet

Read more about the nuclear issue in Turkey:

Greenpeace Blasts Turkish Nuclear Energy Institute Over Negligence

Plans for Turkey’s First Nuclear Power Plant Revealed

Despite Japan, Turkey Goes Ahead With Nuclear Reactors

Images via Yeşil Gazete and Bianet

The post Turks Ask Their Leaders to Say “No to Nuclear” appeared first on Green Prophet.

On Sunday, Turkey’s Green and Future Left parties organized small but loud protests in six cities around Turkey to oppose the country’s new Protection of Nature and Biological Diversity Law. The draft law, currently on the agenda of the Turkish Parliament, will allow formerly protected natural areas to be opened for construction, according to Turkish environmentalists, opposition politicians, and environmental engineers who have examined the bill.

The law allows formerly protected land to be developed when it serves the “great public welfare” of Turkey, according to a passage from the law quoted in Turkish paper Hürriyet Daily News: “If strategic areas seen important for great public welfare are inside the areas that should necessitate protection, then their management under certain conditions should be enabled.”

“Great public welfare” is too vague a term, according to Turkey’s Chamber of Environmental Engineers, and could allow protected habitats to be spoiled merely to boost tourism or industry.

In addition to the six rallies organized around the country on Sunday, the Turkish public have been making their voice heard online. More than 100 Turkish environmental groups have thrown their support behind the initiative to redraft the bill through a more transparent, participatory process, and a Change.org petition calling for the current bill to be withdrawn from parliament has so far received nearly 40,000 signatures

Opponents of the bill have raised other concerns, according to the HDN.

First, the bill will make Turkey’s ministries responsible for overseeing protected natural areas. The administration has a very checkered record on cases of clashing environmental and business interests, most recently demonstrated by the government’s backing of the Ilısu Dam project, on which construction has continued despite a January order from Turkey’s highest administrative court to halt until environment impact assessments have been conducted.

Second, locals will no longer have a part in helping maintain protected natural areas near their homes. Finally, the bill doesn’t include the term “national park”, suggesting that the entire concept might be expunged from Turkey’s law on the environment.

A deputy of Turkey’s largest opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), told the HDN that his party was willing to rewrite the law after consulting with environmental NGOs and academics.

The deputy, Mustafa Serdar Soydan, said the CHP would seek support from European Union groups if they cannot change the course of the bill in Turkish Parliament.

“Natural, protected areas form around 4 percent of [Turkish land] while this rate is 14 percent in the European Union. Instead of increasing this [rate], this draft law is leaving the protection job to the ministries, which will spoil these areas,” Soydan told the paper.

:: Bianet, Hürriyet Daily News

Read more about conservation in Turkey:
Life Returns to Gulf – Once a Sewer on Turkey’s Aegean Coast
Istanbul’s Natural Oases: the Atatürk Arboretum and Belgrade Forest
Hydroelectric Dam Threatens “Ecological Massacre” in Turkey
Polluting Paradise Documentary Follows Turkish Village’s Battle Against Invading Garbage

Image via Yeşil Gazete

The post Turkey’s “Nature Law” Will Cause More Environmental Degradation, Activists Warn appeared first on Green Prophet.

The gulf was used as an open sewer system from the 1960s until 2000, when the city of Izmir initiated the Big Gulf Project to clean it up. Those efforts are paying off, according to observations collected by the Marine Sciences and Technology Institute of Turkey’s Dokuz Eylül University (DEU) in a newly released report, according to the Turkish paper Hürriyet Daily News.

Water quality improving rapidly

Underwater photos from five different locations around the gulf provide the most visually striking evidence that life is returning to the area.

Various species of seahorses, starfish, shrimps, anemones, fish, algae, and plant life are bringing color back to the gulf as levels of dissolved oxygen rise in the water.

“We have been monitoring the biological situation of the İzmir Gulf since 1996. We take samples in all four seasons. We also measure the heavy metal rate in the sea once a year,” DEU Marine Sciences and Technology Institute project coordinator Professor Filiz Küçüksezgin told the Hürriyet Daily News.

Environmental and economic benefits

The ultimate goal of the Big Gulf Project is to make the gulf clean enough to swim in, according to Ahmet Alpaslan, the general manager of Izmir’s water and sewage system.

The city will establish a special channel north of the gulf to prevent shoaling and increase water circulation there, says Alpaslan.

The project will undoubtedly take several more years, but when the gulf is ready for swimmers, the marine life that is returning to the area will make it a rewarding destination for snorkelers and divers.

The third most populous city in Turkey, Izmir is very near the ancient city of Ephesus, and already attracts many tourists each year.

Wildlife conservation not usually a priority in Turkey

The Big Gulf Project was made possible thanks to hefty investments by the Izmir municipality.

Sadly, many authorities in Turkey aren’t so willing to invest in protecting their local environment. Environmental degradation from power plants, mines, chemical plants, trash dumps, and other industrial projects usually goes unmonitored and unaddressed.

Polluting Paradise, for example, a recent documentary by Turkish filmmaker Fatih Akin, showed the tragic and disgusting effects of a massive landfill on the lives of villagers in Turkey’s lush Black Sea region.

In eastern Turkey, the unusually diverse ecosystem of the Aras River basin — a main stop for millions of bird migrating between Africa and Eurasia — is threatened by a hydroelectric dam backed by the Turkish central government.

The Izmir Gulf clean-up is a rare example of conservation done right in Turkey. Hopefully more municipalities will follow Izmir’s example in protecting their natural riches.

::Hürriyet Daily News

Read more about nature conservation in Turkey:
Istanbul’s Natural Oases: The Atatürk Arboretum and Belgrade Forest
Hydroelectric Dam Threatens “Ecological Massacre” in Turkey
Polluting Paradise Documentary Follows Turkish Village’s Battle Against Invading Garbage
In Remotest Anatolia, Lone NGO Speaks Up On Nature’s Behalf

Images via Hürriyet Daily News

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Until a recent urban renewal project that forced most residents out, the neighborhood of Tarlabaşı was home to a diverse array of Istanbul’s minority populations.

In the early 20th century, Tarlabaşı’s winding streets and colorful buildings were home to many of the city’s Greek residents. After violence against the Greek population their mass emigration from Turkey, Roma and Kurdish families moved in. But today, a municipal plan to turn the area into a wealthier, more mainstream neighborhood has forced out most families — and is making life miserable for the residents who refuse to leave, reports independent media agency Bianet.

Forced to collect rainwater for drinking

The Ber family profiled by three Bianet reporters are, like many modern residents of the neighborhood, recent immigrants to Istanbul from Turkey’s eastern regions.

Their house is certified as cultural heritage by the Istanbul municipality. But because it stands in the way of the urban renewal plans, they were offered approximately 35,000 Euros two years ago to leave and move to a different part of the city. For a family of ten, it will be impossible to find a suitable house for that amount on today’s market, so they refused the offer and stayed.

Other Tarlabaşı residents who demanded more money for their houses were personally threatened, so most of them caved in, took the money, and left, says Ali Ber.

The city is already sending the Bers threatening messages. Recently, their water was cut, forcing the family to collect rainwater for drinking. When Ali Ber asked the municipality why, he was simply informed that the family “could have already been evicted.”

More information about the ongoing gentrification of Tarlabaşı can be found at Tarlabaşı Istanbul.

A recurring problem

“Urban renewal” projects in Istanbul rarely renew their target areas.

The neighborhood of Sulukule was also predominantly inhabited by Roma until the city evicted most residents to make way for planned gentrification. By the time an Istanbul court annulled the project last year, saying it violated the area’s heritage protections and the residents’ rights, most houses had already been destroyed and hundreds of new villas were under construction.

In the city’s main square, Taksim, a more high-profile controversial renovation has begun. The Taksim Project, as it’s known, will replace the square’s adjacent park with a reproduction of old military barracks and a shopping mall, and will isolate the square from surrounding neighborhoods by transforming streets into highways.

Construction on the Taksim Project is now underway, despite the protests of many urban planners, environmentalists, and citizens, none of whom were consulted on the project.

:: Bianet

Read more about controversial urban planning in Istanbul:

Controversial Renovation of Istanbul’s Taksim Square Has Begun

Istanbul’s Main Square To Become Lifeless and Isolated In New Urban Plan, Opponents Warn

Istanbul Court Annuls Almost-Finished Roma Neighborhood Project

Image via m-lodious

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Under a new plan proposed by Zorlu, an undersea pipeline would deliver 8-10 billion cubic meters of natural gas each year from the Leviathan, 130 kilometers west of Haifa, to Turkey’s southern coast, reports Haaretz. The plan makes sense for Zorlu, one of Turkey’s biggest gas consumers, and for Leviathan’s partners, for whom this is the most profitable way to sell Levithan’s output. But will tense relations between the two countries allow the deal to proceed?

Troubled history

Ironically, the governments of Turkey and Israel have fallen out in recent years partly due to disputes over rights to natural gas deposits in the Mediterranean.

Israel has typically sided with Greece and Cyprus on gas drilling projects that excluded The Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC): a country whose sovereignty only Turkey recognizes. Other international events, such as the Mavi Marmara incident, have further soured relations between Israel and Turkey.

The Leviathan gas field contains approximately 425 billion cubic meters of gas. Leviathan’s partners say Israel’s gas needs are more than covered by the Tamar field, so there won’t be any shortages.

When Leviathan’s gas field partners first broached the idea of building a pipeline to Turkey, it was shelved in favor of plans to export to more friendly countries, such as Greece or China. But Greece’s buying potential has been slashed by the economic crisis there, and China is only in the market for liquefied natural gas (LNG), which wouldn’t be as profitable for the Leviathan operators.

Ramifications of the new pipeline

If Turkey and Israel can put aside their grudges, the pipeline would seem to be a win-win for both countries.

But building the pipeline may create new diplomatic rifts of its own. It would have to pass through Lebanese and Syrian economic zones, and would pose a challenge to Russia’s Gazprom, currently the dominant gas exporter to Turkey and Europe.

Discussions over the pipeline continue between the foreign ministries of Israel and Turkey. Regardless of the outcome, the news is yet another reminder of how dirty fuels such as oil and gas can hamper the economic and diplomatic progress of a country.

Some countries are forced to use these fuels. But for Turkey, which has abundant renewable resources of its own, the tensions caused by hydrocarbon production and trading are completely avoidable.

:: Haaretz

Read more about energy politics in Turkey:

Turkey Ripe For Renewable Energy Boom — So Why the Delay?

Turkey’s Economic Growth Hampered By Oil Addiction, Analysts Say

Natural Gas Creating New Axes Of Alliance Across the Mediterranean

Image via Haaretz

The post Turkish Conglomerate Plans Undersea Pipeline To Import Israeli Gas appeared first on Green Prophet.

A mosque slated to be built in the western city of Bursa will produce 120 kilowatts of electricity from solar and wind energy, according to Turkish paper Hürriyet Daily News. But the building will consume just 50 kW of that, selling the rest to the national power grid.

See the design for the mosque after the jump.

First Turkish mosque designed to run on renewables

Turkey already has at least one mosque that generates and uses solar power, in a village in the Mediterranean province of Akkuyu. But Bursa’s mosque will be the first to be designed as a renewable energy producer/consumer.

Designed by architect Celik Erengezgin, the mosque will have solar panels on its roof and a wind turbine installed on one of its minarets, the towers from which Muslim muezzins call the faithful to prayer. Snow and rain water will also be collected for the mosque’s water needs.

Although the details haven’t been worked out, Erengezgin told Hürriyet, electricity may also be generated from the pe ressure that worshippers exert on the mosque’s floor.

“We will tell the worshippers, ‘You can charge your cell phones here, because you have produced this energy [while praying on the floor of the mosque],'” the architect said.

Erengezgin says he hopes the structure, which has already received positive feedback from Turkey’s Ministry of Religious Affairs, will be an inspiration for other mosques.

Solar capacity still very limited in Turkey

Turkey’s Energy Market Regulatory Authority currently limits the amount of solar power that can be licensed each year to 600 MW: a drop in the bucket of the country’s installed power capacity of 55,000 MW. Licenses are required for any power-generating installation greater than 500 kW.

Outside observers have pointed out that the country is well-equipped to become a renewable energy dynamo in its region, but bureaucratic obstacles and restrictive policies — such as the 600 MW limit on solar power — have held Turkey back from taking advantage of its remarkable renewable resources.

Bursa’s new mosque may well inspire other architects around the Middle East to go greener when designing places of worship. But as long as governments such as Turkey’s stand in the way of widescale renewable energy production, these mosques will continue to be rare, if admirable, exceptions.

:: Hürriyet Daily News

Read more about renewable energy in Turkey:

Mosque in Turkey Goes Solar
Turkey Ripe for Renewable Energy Boom — So Why the Delay?
14,000 Turkish Homes To Be Powered By World’s Most Efficient 1.5 MW Wind Turbines

Image via Julia Harte

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