The Kalyon Karpinar Solar Power Plant has been inaugurated in Turkey. The plant located in Konya’s Karpinar district is reported to be the largest plant in Europe with a capacity of 1350 MW .
Inaugurating the plant, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said, “Turkey will not be a country that needs energy resources, but a country that can export energy.”
The firm informed that the plant has more than 3.2 million solar panels having the capacity to generate approximately 3 million kWh of electricity per year. This will cater to the electricity needs of 2 million people. The plant is expected to save $450 million worth of fossil fuel.
Located in the most exposed area of the sun, the plant covers an area of 20 million square meters. It is now operational and will prevent $1.5 million worth of carbon emissions annually.
As a part of Turkey’s Renewable Energy Resources Zone initiative called YEKA, Turkey-based Kalyon Energy invested $1 billion in the plant. The YEKA programme aims to promote the development of renewable energy in areas with a high concentration of renewable energy resources.
With this, the share of solar energy in Turkey’s total energy is increased by 20 percent. Renewable energy is also reported to contribute more than half of Turkey’s installed capacity.
Currently, as per data, the capacity of solar energy installations has reached 9820 MW. Moreover, reports also suggest that the country’s renewable energy portfolio will witness rise in in wind and solar capacity by more than 1 GW.
