FGD investments as part of energy policy: A case study for Turkey

Coal-fired power plants take a significant share in electricity production at present. Therefore, emission reduction, especially sulfur dioxide (SO2) is essential. Thus, the coal-fired power plants are built with “Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD)” units. Turkey has retrofitted exiting thermal power plants with new FGD units. Turkey's installed electricity generation capacity was 49,524MW in 2010. The coal-fired thermal plants made up 26% of this capacity. However, only 4107MW of lignite fired power plants are equipped with the retrofit FGD units. In this paper, the additional cost burden of the retrofitted FGD units to the national electricity generation is thoroughly evaluated using the technical and economic parameters. The share of the FGD investments is vital for the domestic energy investments and electric power sector. The FGD unit cost may increase the investment rate up to 17%. The proposed indicators are presented to introduce effectiveness for FGD investments in the energy sector. The parameters and indicators of the FGD investments in Turkey are depending on the new air pollution control legislations. The relationship between the rise of the FGD investments and the national macroeconomic indicators such as economic growth, state debt, and foreign investment rate in Turkey are shown with actual data.