Electricity Generation From Dams in Turkey

As a result of growing environmental consciousness, renewable energy sources such as hydropower are preferred. It is generated from domestic sources and is also the cheapest in terms of cost. In 2007, the annual electricity production of Turkey reached 191,558.1 GWh of which 35,850.8 GWh came from hydropower plants. The economically and technically exploitable potential of Turkey is 127,000 GWh/yr. Hydroelectric production depends on some factors such as the climate and topographical conditions. Therefore, the geographical conditions containing these factors play effective roles in hydroelectric generation. Sixty-five hydro dams having 48,184 GWh total annual generation capacities are in Turkey. In this article, generation capacities of these dams were investigated for the period from 1956 to 2007. The geographical regional distributions of these dams with respect to both numbers and generation capacities are discussed. Since geographical conditions also effect the construction types of hydro dams, regional distributions of the construction types and energy generation capacities of the different dam types were also evaluated.