Stalking barefooted in the warm shallow waters incessantly spilling over the rims of the shel-formed travertines of Pamukkale reminds me of an old poem of an abandoned English nobleman. Fleeting images of joy. Relaxed youth dazzled by the red-orange crown of the sun sinking way back there behind the bluish grays of nameless mountains into sunsets to remember for ever. Under their barren feet the soothing caress of the thermal waters and the fables, the legends and the many histories of real antiquity in the air.
The Aegean part of Turkey features 11 of the 14 geothermal locations scheduled for privatization this year. I think it is the EU pressure which made the Ministry of Energy and Natural resources order a study (with the institute for Mining Exploration) that resulted with a conclusion that about $900 million investment will result with creation of about 5,000 jobs in the privatized geothermal localities. The study suggests that some 50 townships in eight Aegean municipalities will get (at least partial) geothermal heating. The media loves to claim that there are these regions of Turkey which "sit on a furnace" and that once that huge energy beneath is harnessed, homes and greenhouses will be heated, streets lit and engines in factories supplied with electricity.
Hilmi Guler the minister of Energy, says that his country's geotherman potential is seventh in the whole big, wide world, and the first in Europe. Presently, in different forms, Turkey uses only 10% of that energy. The minister speaks of 52 wells in the 14 geothermal locations, of a total of 50 megawatts of electricity to heat 50,000 homes and 5,000 medium-sized greenhouses.

I do not think many Dutch, eventually some entrepreneurial Aalsmeerian boers, would be attracted because of the near free glass-house heating.
The analyses indicates that this geothermal energy is some 25% cheaper than natural gas. Then, when estimates and approximation begin sprouting people get carried away. Orhan Mertoglu the vice-president of the International geothermal Organization and president of the Turkish geothermal Association is quoted saying that "this energy is environmentally friendly and inexpensive for the end user" but continues pointing that "if 500,000 homes were heated with it then one billion cubic meters of gas a year will be saved" but that is all besides the point.
The fact remains that the laws for privatization have not been passed by the Mejlis in Ankara (the Parliament). The private investors will not pour money in field which have not (according Hasan Baykal the head of the Geology Engineering Chamber of Izmir, implies that some sort of a warranty into the potential and reserves of each geothermal field is needed before people invest into buying and developing it. There is an approximation that the total value of Turkish geothermal resources is about $20 billion. This may, but then very, very speculatively imply that it is something like $ 400 million per each of the 52 wells. That is for the future to prove.
In the meantime stalking the shallow waters of Pamukkale near Aphrodisias is much, much greater and momentous pleasure enjoyable right now. I would not miss it for anything, especially with this total solar eclipse on the 29th of March at 11:00 - if I have not enjoyed it till now...

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