Italian organic Rankine cycle (ORC) turbines manufacturer Exergy has begun operations at a new 4 MW low enthalpy geothermal plant in Denizli region in Turkey’s southwest, Energy Business Review reported.
The company has completed ORC binary installation, making the Akça plant the world’s first facility to be equipped with a 2-pressure-level cycle on a single-disk turbine, the report said. Design enables the plant to generate up to 20% more electricity than competitors, using a single pressure level system. The plant will be operated by Akça Enerji. Performance tests had indicated very high turbine efficiency, over 5% more than the guaranteed figures provided to the customer.
The new binary plant configuration is expected to increase the feasibility of low-enthalpy 3–8 MW range plants down to 100°C and also open up possibilities for Exergy clients to exploit low enthalpy small resources more efficiently and economically than ever before, the firm said.
Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources confirmed in June that the plant meets the required performance targets. Akça Enerji will therefore benefit from increased revenues coming from the government feed-in-tariff.
The Italian company has reached a total installed and in-construction portfolio of 270 MW this year, within Europe and a value of production currently estimated at EUR 90 million (300% more than 2014). Geothermal has been the most popular application of Exergy’s ORC systems and counts for 90% of the total capacity, followed by heat recovery with 9%.
