Turkey will establish the country's first green hydrogen plant in the northwestern coastal city of Balıkesir, the South Marmara Development Agency (GMKA) announced Thursday.
The cooperation protocol prepared for the Green Hydrogen Plant was signed by officials from GMKA, Enerjisa Üretim, Eti Maden, Turkey's Scientific and Technological Research Council's Marmara Research Center (TÜBITAK MAM) and Aspilsan Energy, according to the statement issued by the GMKA.
Within the scope of the protocol, the production and use of green hydrogen, which has the greatest potential to replace fossil fuels in reducing carbon emissions with existing technologies on the way to 100% energy transformation, began at Enerjisa's Bandırma facility.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Industry and Technology Deputy Minister Çetin Ali Dönmez said that they attach great importance to cooperation and the culture of "working together."
"We need to use this accumulation in the public sector together with the private sector and create good success stories from these. The perspective of the ministry is to support concrete and reasonable projects as much as possible," he said.
TÜBITAK Vice President Ahmet Yozgatlıgil stated that the protocol has great importance in Turkey as well as in the world and highlighted the importance of cooperation between the public and private sectors.
Meanwhile, Eti Maden General Manager Serkan Keleşer said that they will provide significant added value thanks to the boron carbide facility that they will put into operation this year. Keleşer also said that this year Eti Maden will lay the foundations of the "ferro boron facility" and "the facility for the production of lithium in ore."
Noting that they will start working on the investment of "sodium boron hydride production," which they attach great importance to, Keleşer said: "Boron has great advantages in hydrogen, and we will focus on the production of solid boron-hydrogen compounds with high added value by using this advantage. Eti Maden will contribute to the development of this cooperation by giving its best support in this regard."
On his part, Aspilsan Energy General Manager Ferhat Özsoy said: "The fact that companies in Turkey have an initiative in this direction is the main driving force. While developments in the world continue on hydrogen, Turkey needs to speed up its work in this area."
While Enerjisa Üretim top executive Ihsan Erbil Bayçöl noted that Turkey has significant potential in hydrogen and that Turkey should be a pioneer in this regard by acting quickly, GMKA's project development specialist Mehmet Volkan Duman spoke about hybrid systems.
Referring to Turkey's energy transformation process and the potential of new energy systems that will be the first for the country, Duman said that the southern Marmara area is the most suitable region for attempts to revive the hydrogen economy. Duman added that the region hosts Turkey's most efficient renewable energy power plants.
