Hat Trick In Southern Turkey For First Solar
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The Turkish provinces of Muğla, Burdur, and Urfais (in southern Turkey) are supposed to soon see a big expansion in solar power, with the construction of three utility-scale solar PV plants on the way. This is thanks in part to US thin-film specialist First Solar. First Solar gained the interconnection rights of the three PV plants. Some have called it a “hat trick” for First Solar.
PV-Tech reports that the rights were “issued by Turkey’s electricity transmission company TEIAS under the country’s Renewable Energy Resources Support Mechanism (YEKDEM) programme… following the second and third round of tenders nearer the end of January 2015.”
First Solar still needs to receive regulatory approval from the three provinces. The power plants it aims to develop will have a combined capacity of 19 MWac, and First Solar foresees the plants producing an estimated 31.5 million kWh of electricity per year. This is enough to power some 14,000 average homes in Turkey.
The genesis of the project is only beginning and First Solar has not confirmed whether it plans to build the plants as a joint venture.
“We entered the Turkish market less than twelve months ago with a strong belief in its potential to evolve into one of Europe’s first truly sustainable PV markets,” said Christopher Burghardt, vice president for Europe at First Solar, said.
“Our success in securing these connection rights vindicates our position and reinforces our confidence in the country and in the strength of its regulatory framework for renewable energy.”
Continuing, it is also reported that the second and third round of tenders in Turkey showed a lot of interest. More contracts were awarded for a total of 283 MW of capacity, with the country expected to award further projects before the end of the year to bring that total up to 600 MW.
In 2014, CleanTechnica reported that “ASX-listed dye solar cell manufacturer, Dyesol, has signed a $A2.2 million contract to establish a prototype products production facility in Turkey.” Also, just recently, we had an article titled “Turkey Aiming For 5 Gigawatts Of Solar By 2023.” That’s a great target, and will mean a ton of growth in the Turkish solar sector. It is also complemented by big targets for other renewables. “The specific goals for the growing country are: 34 GW of hydroelectric, 20 GW of wind energy, 1 GW of geothermal, 1 GW of biomass, and the aforementioned 5 GW of solar PV.”
Image by Anna, via Foter & Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
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