Afşin-Elbistan power stations

The Afşin-Elbistan power stations are coal-fired power stations in Afşin in Kahramanmaraş Province in Turkey. The area is a sulfur dioxide air pollution hotspot: Air pollution can be trapped by the surrounding mountains, and Greenpeace say that measurements they took nearby in late 2020 show illegal levels of particulates and nitrogen oxides. The Environment Ministry has not released the flue gas measurements.

the power station owners still want to build more coal-fired capacity, despite public opposition.

Coal
Local lignite's calorific value is under 5 MJ/kg, which is a quarter of typical thermal coal.

Economics
According to SwitchCoal the plants are not profitable (they assume 2023 opex of 1 us cent per kwh and a 2012 estimate from another organization was half a eurocent per kwh ) and they say switching to solar, wind and batteries at a cost of 4.1 billion dollars would be a good investment. (Turkey is no longer included in sp global dark spread estimates )

The C plant was planned to operate for 35 years and was proposed to be funded the Turkey Wealth Fund (TWF), the country's sovereign wealth fund, being a major partner. This is in accordance with the energy policy of Turkey, which prioritises local sources of energy to reduce coal and natural gas imports, partly in order to maintain energy security. Verus Partners advised on finance, but despite low production costs, the private sector was not interested, as the coal is low-quality. The TWF claims the plant would have an economic life of 35 years, create "serious employment", and Vice President Fuat Oktay said in 2020 that it would reduce the current account deficit. According to Carbon Tracker, new wind and solar power plants are cheaper than building new coal-power plants.

Afşin-Elbistan A
Afşin-Elbistan A power station is a 1355 MW lignite-fired power station, owned by Çelikler Holding, which was shut down in January 2020 due to local air pollution, but reopened in later in 2020. Head of the parliamentary home affairs commission, Celalettin Guveç, said in December that delivery of flue-gas desulfurization parts had been delayed by the covid-19 pandemic and that the filters would be installed by the end of March 2021.

the environmental impact of adding 4th and 5th units is still being assessed. According to the environmental impact assessment 28 million tonnes of CO2 may be emitted per year, far more than the largest emitter in 2022 ZETES power stations at 15 million tonnes. Environmentalists opposing the expansion say that it could lead to an additional 1900 premature deaths.

History
Brought online from 1984 to 1987 Afşin-Elbistan A is one of the largest installed capacity coal-fired power stations in Turkey and is estimated to emit over 8 Mt per year, over 1% of Turkey's greenhouse gas emissions. It was depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 5000 liras banknotes of 1990–1994.

Technology
The plant burns lignite, which is transported by conveyor belt from the nearby Kışlaköy coal mine. It was shut down for refurbishment in 2017. After burning 2% of the lignite remains as slag and 18% as fly ash, and a new landfill site was planned for both of these in 2019.

Opposition
In January 2019 locals complained that the plant had been restarted causing visible ash pollution in the snow, and local MP Sefer Aycan said in parliament he was concerned that the plant would add to the industrial pollution of the Aksu and Ceyhan rivers. In March 2019 Greenpeace projected the message "These chimneys are spitting poison" onto the plant, to publicise their earlier report claiming that, together with neighbouring Afşin-Elbistan B, the plants were responsible for 17,000 premature deaths. The area is a sulfur dioxide air pollution hotspot. According to energy analyst Haluk Direskeneli, writing in 2019, flue-gas desulfurization is not installed and electrostatic precipitation is inadequate, and "it is futile to repair this power plant".

In 2022 the Climate Change Policy and Research Association alleged that the plant was operating illegally according to environmental laws.

Shutdown and reopening
The plant was shut down in January 2020 as it did not meet the flue gas emission limits which came into force that month. Çelikler planned to have filters installed by June 2020. The plant reopened but complaints of air pollution continued, and in October 2021 it was said by opposition MP Ali Öztunç to be still operating without filters due to company lobbying. In November 2020 the company said that the fuel oil system had been replaced by gas and dry flue gas filters had been completed and that they intended to complete wet flue gas filters in 2021.

Afşin-Elbistan B
Afşin-Elbistan B power station is a 1440MW lignite-fired power station in Afşin in Kahramanmaraş Province in Turkey state owned by EÜAŞ. The plant burns lignite from Kışlaköy coal mine (mostly transported by lorry ) and sometimes from other mines.

Built between 2004 and 2005 Afşin-Elbistan B is the largest single installed capacity coal-fired power station in Turkey and is estimated to emit almost 8 Mt per year, over 1% of Turkey's greenhouse gas emissions. Opponents said in September 2020 that ash retention filters are disabled on the pretext that they are expensive to clean. An environmental impact report for proposed ash and slag storage was approved in 2020. It is estimated that closing the plant by 2030, instead of when its licence ends in 2052, would prevent over 3000 premature deaths. In 2021 it was reported that unit 3 had been converted to gas.

Opposition
In December 2021 environmental group TEMA Foundation said that air quality measurements had not been taken in Karamanmaraş for almost 11 months of 2020, and that it was very worrying that the plants continued to operate on temporary permits without the necessary environmental improvements.

Afşin-Elbistan C
Afşin-Elbistan C was a planned 1800-MW coal-fired power station which was proposed to be built in Turkey by the state-owned mining company Maden Holding. Estimated to cost over lira, at planned capacity it would have generated about 3% of the nation's electricity. According to the environmental impact assessment (EIA) the plant would have burned 23 million tonnes of lignite annually, and emitted over 61 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year for 35 years.

However in 2021 Turkey targeted net zero carbon emissions by 2053. It would have been the least carbon efficient coal-fired power station and the largest single emitter of greenhouse gas in the world. In March 2022 Kahramanmaraş Administrative Court stopped the project on the grounds of possible soil and air pollution. In June 2022 the Kahramanmaraş Administrative Court canceled the 'EIA positive' report.

In January 2023 the National Energy Plan was published: it forecast that 1.7 GW more local coal power would be connected to the grid by 2030 but did not say where.

Planned development
Like some other power stations in Turkey the proposed three units of 600 MW for Afşin in Kahramanmaraş Province were originally planned to be owned and operated by the Electricity Generation Company. But in late 2020 it was announced that they would belong to another state-owned company Maden Holding, which holds a variety of mines. Estimated to cost lira, at planned capacity 11 TWh per year (about 3%) of the nation's electricity would be generated by burning 23 million tonnes of Turkish lignite annually.

The site, on the border between Altınelma (in Turkish) and Tanır (in Turkish) neighbourhoods in Afşin district, is near the two existing Afşin-Elbistan power stations. In 2019, compulsory purchase of the land was authorised by President Erdoğan, and diversion of Hurman Creek would allow more access to Elbistan coalfield as well as supplying the plant's cooling water.

In 2020 Kahramanmaraş deputy Sefer Aycan, from the Nationalist Movement Party, called for a parliamentary investigation. In mid-2021 Global Energy Monitor listed the plant's status as "pre-permit development", and negotiations with Chinese companies continued. But later in 2021 China stopped funding overseas coal power.

Technology
The station was planned to run 6,948 hours per year to generate 11,380 GWh. By using a supercritical boiler, the plant would have been more efficient and emitted less local air pollution than all other large (over 400 MW) local lignite-fuelled power stations in Turkey, as they use subcritical boilers. According to Turkey Wealth Fund General Manager Zafer Sonmez, the plant would have been environmentally friendly, using the latest emission control technologies. But, according to campaign group "Right to Clean Air Platform", it would still have resulted in thousands of early deaths over the lifetime of the plant. Cooling water would have been supplied from Hurman Creek via the forthcoming Karakuz Dam, to be built by TOKİ, which will also run a small hydropower plant and supply water for irrigation. According to Climate Action Network Europe the plant would have increased the risk of drought in the area. Construction materials would have been transported via a forthcoming Afşin ring road.

Greenhouse gas emissions
The Afşin-Elbistan C environmental impact assessment (EIA) estimated emissions would be more than 60 million tonnes of  per year: and it was accepted by the government. By comparison, total annual greenhouse gas emissions by Turkey are less than 575 million tonnes; thus about a tenth of greenhouse gas emissions by Turkey would have been from the planned power station. Therefore, if built, at over 5 kg of per kWh generated it would have been less carbon efficient than any coal-fired power station on the list of least carbon efficient power stations. , for comparison, the world's largest single emitter was Secunda CTL, which emitted 56.5 million tonnes a year. Space-based measurements of carbon dioxide means the public will know the level of emissions almost in real time.

Opposition
Ali Öztunç, local MP and environment spokesperson for the main opposition Republican People's Party, spoke out against the plant and asked in a parliamentary question why it should be built on agricultural land. Environmentalists claimed the country already had too much electricity generating capacity and contended that the plant would damage local water resources. Environmental and public health groups criticised the EIA for describing coal as clean energy and, in February 2020, thousands of people filed petitions against its approval: but it was approved by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation in March. In November 2021 an expert report commissioned by the Maraş Regional Administrative Court said that the EIA positive decision given to Afşin-Elbistan C was faulty as it failed to accurately assess the project's impact on agricultural activities, environmental pollution, water basins and human health. In December 2021 environmental group TEMA Foundation said that, as Turkey had recently ratified the Paris Agreement to limit climate change, the plans to build the plant should be immediately abandoned.

Public Opinion
According to a 2020 survey from nearby Kahramanmaraş Sütçüimam University most locals say they have chronic illness, and almost all believe that environmental protection measures taken by power plant managers are insufficient. Opponents of the plants say that: "a significant portion of the people living in Afşin Elbistan are struggling with respiratory tract or cancer diseases."