Green Answer Sheet | Drawing ecological priorities into power plant design
ISKENDERUN, Türkiye, Nov. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from China Daily:
How is a power plant's environmental performance measured? At Iskenderun Bay in Türkiye, the answer from SPIC's Hunutlu Power Plant is not a slogan but a design drawing, a construction halt during nesting season and a set of continuously monitored nest data.
On the beaches of Iskenderun Bay, from late spring to autumn each year, protected green sea turtles return to nest. Oguz Türkozan, a local sea turtle protection expert, has monitored the core area for years. His assessment: the turtle population in the area remains stable, "which is inseparable from the local power plant's conservation efforts."
In recent years, Türkozan has recorded about 50 nests along more than a kilometer of coastline, nearly 10 more than before the plant was commissioned. In recent monitoring, the beach near the plant has recorded a high of more than 60 nests, indicating the nesting ground is in good ecological condition.
Shanghai Electric Power made maintaining the ecology of the nearby sea turtle reserve a precondition at the project planning and design stage. Zhang Qingbin, director of the Hunutlu Power Plant, said that at the beginning of construction design, under the guidance of local sea turtle experts, the nearby transport trestle and access roads were optimized into a long-span truss bridge, so that the turtle nesting area would not be affected.
Turtle protection was also incorporated into the plant's entire construction and operation cycle. During nesting season, related operations nearby are voluntarily suspended and strong night lighting is controlled to ensure that nesting and hatchlings' entry into the sea are not disturbed. Before each breeding season, the plant invites experts such as Türkozan to brief employees and organizes beach cleanups to create a better environment for hatchlings to reach the sea. These visible and participatory conservation actions also respond to local villagers' environmental concerns and have helped the plant win growing local trust.
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