Turkey's first geothermal powerplant, leading by example to limit its production emissions
The Kızıldere geothermal field is currently Turkey’s biggest geothermal field explored for energy generation. It is a high temperature metamorphic reservoir situated in the Denizli Province, southwestern Turkey.
It is a complex of three power plants, Kızıldere-I, -II and -III. Through the GECO project, Zorlu Energy aims to reduce the CO2 emissions for more green geothermal power production while maintaining the sustainability of the reservoir.
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Geology, Reservoir Properties
The Kızıldere geothermal field is associated with the major fault along the northern boundary of the Büyük Menderes graben. The reservoir is within the Menderes massif, one of the oldest basement massifs in Turkey and consists of: a gneiss-core, a less metamorphosed cover series, and an intensely deformed volcano-sedimentary sequence. In the Kızıldere geothermal system, two separate reservoirs can be identified. The shallow reservoir is hosted by Miocene limestones, temperatures of 196-200°C and moderate permeability. The deeper reservoir is hosted in Paleozoic marbles, temperatures of 200-212°C and high permeability.
Zorlu Energy got the concession rights of Kızıldere field in 2008. Kızıldere-I is the first Geothermal Power Plant (GPP) of Turkey commissioned in 1984 with 15 MWe capacity and still operating. By considering reservoir feasibility studies, Zorlu constructed and commissioned its second plant Kızıldere-II with 80 MWe capacity in August 2013. The 165 MWe Kızıldere-III GPP is completely operational since March 2018. Nearly 1/3rd of the discharged NCG from Kızıldere-II is sent to a CO2 facility named Linde Gas. Linde Gas processes the CO2 for commercial activities.