Despite the expansion of renewable energies, Turkey is still heavily dependent on the import of fossil fuels for its energy supply. The aim of this project is to utilize Turkey's hydro potential to meet the increasing demand for electricity and, in conjunction with this, to reduce environmental pollution. The purpose of the project is to generate electricity and feed it into the national grid. The project also contributes to maintaining Turkey's energy security.

The project consists of three individual cascades, each of which uses its own turbines and generators to convert the flow potential of the water into mechanical energy in the first step and then into electrical energy by the generator. The three cascades achieve a maximum power of 20.4 MW.

The purpose of the project is to use the existing water of the river without the need to build a separate catchment basin. This run-of-river hydroelectric power plant will generate 74 GWh of electrical energy per year. While selecting the project, care was taken to ensure that it was a small-scale hydropower plant, as this would reduce the risk of ecological adverse impacts.

Despite significant efforts by the Chinese government to address poverty, it remains a large problem in rural China. The majority of the population is employed in agriculture. Produce is often only sold in local villages and areas with commercial agriculture are struggling with a decline in prices due to the oversupply that has arisen, combined with a loss of income for producers. Most low-income, rural households in China use open wood and coal stoves to heat the home and to cook. The smoke and soot produced is not only bad for the environment, but can also have severe health consequences, especially for women and children who spend more time in the household.

The Sichuan Household Biogas Program is a Program of Activities that provides biogas digesters and cookstoves to low income households in Sichuan Province, China. By switching to biogas cookers, households no longer need to burn firewood and coal, improving the air quality inside the home by generating clean and permanently available energy. The biogas digesters are provided to smallholder farmers who own livestock. Manure from the livestock can be collected and stored in these biodigesters, capturing the methane emissions and converting this as a source of renewable energy for neighbouring households.

The burning of fossil fuels such as lignite and coal is the main driver behind human-made climate change, since burning these fossil emits large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere. Preventing the consumption of fossil fuels by replacing coal power plants with green electricity providing plants, such as wind, hydro or solar, is therefore one of the most impactful levers against climate change. Besides emitting CO2, another downside of conventional power plants is the associated air pollution through the emission of particulate matter, which causes respiratory issues for the population living around the power plants.

Moving to green electricity is therefore crucial globally, but especially in India, where this project is located: The country’s population is growing rapidly and so is the demand for energy. However, India’s current electric power systems are highly dependent on carbon-intensive fossil fuels and is prone to power outages. Feeding additional renewable energy to the electricity grids across India is therefore critical to mitigate energy related CO2-emissions, reduce air pollution emitted by fossil fuel power plants and increase the reliability of energy supply to the population.

More than half of all rural communities in Sierra Leone have no access to an improved water source and have to rely on unprotected water sources such as rivers or swamps. Even if improved sources are available, an estimated 95% of them are contaminated by diseases like E-coli. To purify this contaminated water and avoid becoming sick, affected households are forced to boil it.
To boil the water, mostly women or children have to collect firewood or other burning materials. Not only is this gathering time-consuming and cumbersome: Collecting and burning the materials damages the ecosystem, reduces local biodiversity and releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which further contributes to global warming. Moreover, community members in proximity to the fireplaces are at an elevated risk of contracting smoke-induced health complications.

This clean water project in Sierra Leone collaborates closely with a local organization to restore and maintain boreholes and to assure that proper sanitation practices are followed by the community members. This ensures that boreholes are kept free of contaminants and that clean drinking water is available for the project’s households in the long term.