Located just outside Istanbul, this landfill gas extraction project produces 65MW of electricity, providing affordable and clean power for 1.2 million homes.

Background

Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey, home to 14.1 million residents. Currently, the city’s waste is split between two sites, which combined dispose of 19,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste every day. Without the intervention of this project, the municipal waste is left to decay at these landfill sites, releasing large amounts of methane into the atmosphere. 

Methane is around 32 times as potent as a greenhouse gas as CO2. This project captures and converts waste gas, methane, from sanitary landfill sites. 

Capturing the methane at the landfill site prevents it from going into the atmosphere, reducing the effect of climate change. Instead, the gas is used to power turbines that feed electricity into Turkey’s grid, providing affordable electricity.

About the project

This project involves the development, and construction of two waste-to-energy facilities. The project objective is to build, operate, and maintain two landfill waste-to-energy systems consisting of landfill gas collection systems, flaring stations, and gas engines coupled with generators to produce electricity. The gas engines will combust the landfill gas to produce electricity, and any excess gas will be flared. 

The electricity generated by this project will replace electricity from fossil fuels, which is currently the dominant source of energy in the Turkish grid. Overall, this will result in  a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in Turkey.

This project is certified to the highest level by Gold Standard, as approved by the UN. Read more about Gold Standard’s certification process. 

Cost (USD / tonne of CO2e): $11 (read more about how this is calculated)

The impacts and benefits of this project: 

• Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in Turkey by replacing electricity otherwise generated by fossil fuel power plants 
• Estimated 818,841 tonnes of CO2e reduced every year
• Creation of local employment opportunities 
• Contribution to the development of waste management technology and landfill gas utilisation in Turkey. 
• Reduced impact of landfill on its surroundings. 

Sustainable Development Goals

One of the requirements of Gold Standard certification is that the projects meet at least 3 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, of which one is climate action. This means that as well as fighting climate change by offsetting carbon emissions, the projects your money is supporting contribute to sustainable development for ecosystems and communities around the world. 

The goals met by this project are: 

3. Good health and well-being – Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all at all ages is essential to sustainable development 

7. Affordable and clean energy – Energy is central to nearly every major challenge and opportunity

12. Responsible consumption and production 

13. Climate action

Read more about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. 

Your impact

You can see a record of our donation to this project on our public ledger. You can also view global contributions to this project on Gold Standard’s impact registry. 

Thanks to the contributions of our Treepoints members, we are reducing carbon emissions for a more sustainable future.