June 10 (SeeNews) - Turkey intends to build a 3,500 megawatts coal-fired thermal power plant for $5 billion (3.8 billion euro) in Afyon province, local media reported on Monday citing the country's energy minister Taner Yildiz.
The plant will use as fuel the lignite deposits in Afyon's town of Dinar, TRT Haber, the news website of Turkey's national broadcaster TRT, reported citing a statement by the minister. Turkey's General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration, MTA, has identified lignite reserves of some 950 million tonnes in Dinar, according to Yildiz.
Yildiz said Turkey targets to boost its total installed coal-fired power generation capacity to 3,000 megawatts in ten years as part of its plans to produce one-third of its power from coal by 2023.
The private sector will build a 240 megawatts thermal power plant for $700 million in eastern Turkey's province of Bingol, the minister added.
($ = 0.758 euro)