Geothermal energy, which is brought to the district center from the Hisaralan region, 20 km away from Balikesir's Sindirgi district, by a special line, is used in thermal tourism, residential heating, and geothermal vegetable and fruit drying. In order to utilize the geothermal water discharged after residential heating, a 1,000-square-meter greenhouse was built as an example.
Geothermal energy, which has a temperature of 98 degrees at its source, is used in other projects after the heating of 5,000 houses, and it is aimed to use it in the most efficient way without waste as clean and natural energy with high economic gain.
The Geothermal Greenhouse project was completed in cooperation with the Ministry of Family and Social Policies, Ministry of Agriculture, Balikesir Metropolitan Municipality, and Sindirgi Municipality, and it is preparing for soilless production. With the project being fully active, the working system of the geothermal greenhouse will set an example for the citizens of the region, and various hobby activities for the elderly will be held in this area.
10,000 root strawberries are planted in the greenhouse, the construction of which was completed by the teams of the Sindirgi Municipality Urban Design Directorate. Strawberries grown in the greenhouse will also be dried at the geothermal drying facility in the region, packaged, and turned into high-value-added products.
Sindirgi Mayor Ekrem Yavas was deemed worthy of the 2021 Golden Ant Awards, known as the Oscar of municipalism, by the Marmara Municipalities Association for his investments in the geothermal field and the 'Natural City Developed with Green Energy Project.'
Agricultural engineer Mehmet Demircan, who stated that they started the first production in order to set an example for the growers, said, "At the moment, in order to set an example for our growers in this field for soilless agriculture, we want to show that we can not only produce strawberry in the open field but also in the greenhouses and how much efficiently we can produce strawberries in greenhouses if we choose to do so. We are currently planting 10,000 seedlings in soilless agriculture. We have a drying facility close to our greenhouse area, and by increasing the quality of strawberry production, we can increase the yield in the greenhouse. In the drying facility, we will ensure that these strawberries are stored and dried to be marketed in a profitable way."
Stating that they have implemented their projects in order to use natural resources in the most efficient way without wasting them, Sindirgi Mayor Ekrem Yavas said, "We are in a technological greenhouse next to Balkuru, the geothermal fruit and vegetable drying factory of Sindirgi Municipality. Today we planted our strawberries, there are 10,000 root strawberries here, and these strawberries are suitable for complete drying. We will harvest these products after one month, and we expect to harvest around 25 tons of products annually. These products produced in the greenhouse will be dried in the fruit and vegetable drying factory right next to it, packaged, and sent to the whole world from Sindirgi. The employment of women here is a very important factor here as well in terms of creating employment for women. Additionally, here we will be teaching our growers in the region the methods of producing high-value-added products. Our goal as a municipality is to provide support in both employment and agricultural production through making use of technology and our geothermal resources and to increase the volume and quality of the production in our district.
Source: Yeni Mesaj