VAN PROVINCE, TURKEY
With its deep valleys and high mountains, the Gevaş district in the Van province of Turkey is an ideal location for a wind farm. In fact, it’s one of the country’s most productive areas in terms of sustainable wind energy. The engineer you can see on the turbine is safely tethered to a guard rail.
High up in the mountains, cold air is denser and heavier than warm air. Gaps between mountains funnel and intensify winds, and the strong but consistent breezes mean that wind farms can produce more power. At an altitude of 3,000m, the wind turbines at Gevaş also have snow and blizzards to contend with, not to mention ice formation, but the payoff is enough electricity to supply 50,000 houses.
In Turkey, wind power usually generates around 10 per cent of the country’s electricity, but in early April this year, daily wind generation hit an all-time high when more than 25 per cent of total electricity came from wind power.