Investigation of carbon footprint effect of renewable power plants regarding energy production: A case study of a city in Turkey

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper presents a carbon footprint investigation of renewable power plants in a city in Turkey. With a total of 71 licensed power plants, this area is significant in terms of energy production resources such as hydroelectric, wind, solar, and lignite. As of April 2021, it has 4401.17 MW of installed power, accounting for 4.87% of Turkey’s installed power and ranked third in terms of installed power cities. This city has 18 natural gas power plants, 3 lignite power plants, 33 hydroelectric (stream), 7 hydroelectric (dam) power plants, 2 solar, 2 coal, 2 wind, 1 waste heat, and 3 biomass power plants. However, all production technologies produce CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs), and emissions might be both direct and indirect. Once harmful gases are released into the atmosphere, they damage the ecosystem and all living things while also contributing to climate change. The Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Climate Agreement were signed to deal with climate change and propose a limitation on carbon emissions. Thus, countries have adopted some strategies to reduce their carbon footprint. For instance, Turkey is aiming to increase the share of domestic and renewable energy in electricity generation to reduce GHG emissions by up to 21% between 2020–2030. In this study, a carbon footprint effect analysis was carried out during electricity generation in a city with abundant renewable energy potential. According to the findings, it was determined that the renewable power plants successfully reduced the carbon footprint of the area as 3,500,794 tons CO2, 3,024,120 tons CO2, and 1,073,039 tons CO2 for 2019, 2020, and 2021 (end of April), respectively. Implications: The main aim of this study is to investigate a carbon footprint effect during electricity generation in a region (Kahramanmaraş, Turkey) with abundant renewable energy potential in terms of electricity generation. This area is significant in terms of energy production resources including hydroelectric, wind, solar, and lignite, with a total of 71 licensed power plants. The key contributions of this research study are: (1) The study of carbon footprint savings based on the electricity generation of this city was carried out for the first time in the literature. (2) While generating electricity with renewable energy sources, it has been determined that an average of 3,500,794 tons CO2, 3,024,120 tons CO2, and 1,073,039 tons CO2 carbon footprint savings were accomplished for 2019, 2020, and 2021 (end of April), respectively. (3) This study demonstrated that a city with abundant lignite potential emits a high amount of carbon footprint into the atmosphere while producing energy. By using lignite, 4,462,045 tons CO2, 3,952,348 tons CO2, and 1,140,975 tons CO2 were emitted for 2019, 2020, and 2021 (end of April), respectively. (4) The study includes encouraging research on renewable energy investment in accordance with the Kyoto Protocols and the Paris Agreement for local governments and investors. (5) The study sheds light on the distance Turkey has covered on the way to the 2030 targets in the fight against cli-mate change, regionally