World’s largest solar power plant with single investor starts electricity production

The world’s biggest solar power plant with a single investor, the Karapinar plant in Konya in southcentral Türkiye, became fully operational in March, Kalyon Enerji’s Chief Operations Officer (COO), Gurler Duman, announced on Saturday.

According to Duman, the plant’s more than 3 million solar panels are now generating 1,350 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough to provide power to 2 million people.

The plant has been developed within the scope of the country’s Renewable Energy Resource Zone (YEKA), a government scheme to establish renewable facilities in areas that are abundant in at least one renewable energy source, either wind or solar power. YEKA projects use investments from local investors and/or consortiums for the manufacture of equipment and the construction of large-scale electricity generation facilities.

The plant has a total area of 20,000 decares and is located in a region with the greatest solar exposure.

The solar panels in the facility come from Türkiye’s first integrated solar ingot-wafer-module-cell production factory in Ankara, which was established by Kalyon Solar Energy Technologies Production Company and started production on Aug. 19, 2020.

In recent years, YEKA projects have been the main drivers of growth in renewable energy, both in terms of technology development, equipment manufacture and electricity generation.

As a testament to the success of such projects, Duman said the power plant has become the world’s largest solar power plant established by a single investor.

He explained that the facility differs from those listed as large solar parks in that they are funded by a large number of investors or consortiums rather than a single investor.

Similar projects financed by a sole investor will become operational in the Middle East in the following months, he said.

• Chief Operations Officer (COO)