Turkey is preparing to boost its renewable energy generation capacity. Plans to hold a tender for the construction of what is said to be the world’s largest photovoltaic solar plant were recently announced by the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Berat Albayrak. The 1 GW solar farm will be built in Konya, in central Anatolia.
According to media reports, the tender will be published in December. The solar park will cover an area of 2,000 hectares and produce 17 TWh of electricity, an amount sufficient to power 600,000 homes. The project will benefit from a 15-year guarantee of purchase and construction will start as soon as possible, to be able to start delivering energy at the end of 2018
The project also aims to encourage the development of the country’s renewable energy industry and to maximize impacts for the local economy. The solar farm is expected to attract 1.3 billion dollars and partnerships with foreign companies. The tender, it has been said, will include clauses for the use of domestic research and development (R&D) and for equipment produced in Turkey. It will also address issues of employment, asking that 80 % of engineers involved in the project are recruited locally
Earlier in May, in the same region, Tekno Ray Solar and Italy’s Enerray announced the opening of Turkey’s largest solar power plant. With an initial capacity of 18.5 MW, this farm will reach a total of 22.5 MW meeting the demand of some 20,000 households.
Turkey has the largest solar potential in Europe after Spain and the government has set a target of 5 GW of solar capacity to be reached by 2023. Although the regulatory framework is still complex, investments in the sector are on the rise and the country is expected to achieve 1 GW of solar power generation by the end of the year.
Turkey is also planning to hold a tender for a similar project in wind energy at the beginning of 2017.
Claudia Delpero
Photovoltaic Feed