| Summary: In this thesis, a wind and a hydroelectric and a thermal power plant which are presently under operation in Turkey were assessed against a range of indicators (economical, environmental and sustainability) using data obtained from the literature. The indicators used to assess each technology were the price of generated electricity, greenhouse gas emissions during full life cycle of the technology, availability of renewable sources, efficiency of energy conversion, land requirements, water consumption. The cost of electricity, greenhouse gas emissions and the efficiency of electricity generation were found to have a very wide range for each technology, mainly due to variations in technological options as well as geographical dependence of each renewable energy source. These energy technologies were then ranked against each indicator assuming that indicators have equal importance for sustainable development. It was found that windpower is the most economical and sustainable, followed by hydropower. Windpower was identified with the lowest relative greenhouse gas emissions, the least water consumption demands and with the most favourable social impacts comparing to other technologies, but requires larger land and has high relative capital and operational costs.
Key Words: Energy, Renewable energy, Wind power plants, hydroelectric plants, thermal power plants.
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