Turkey's
Istanbul-based EPC contractor, Inosolar, plans to open a solar panel factory in
a partnership with Europe's largest independent solar energy company
SolarWorld, Inosolar's chairman of the board told Anadolu Agency on Friday.
Inosolar
and Solarworld reached an agreement of exclusivity on Jan. 12 which authorises
Inosolar as German producer's sole distributor in Turkey with an option to
build a solar panel factory in central Anatolia.
Under
the agreement, SolarWorld will provide with a capacity of 60 megawatts (MW) of
photovoltaic (PV) modules for the solar projects in Turkey in the first half of
the year.
Following
a visit to SolarWorld's module manufacturing facility in Freiberg, Ismet Ersoy
said that Inosolar's cooperation with SolarWorld dates back to 2012 after when
Inosolar used SolarWorld modules in its several photovoltaic projects. They
preferred German company's products in its 25 MW PV solar power project in
southeastern district of Gaziantep.
"One
of the reasons why we prefer SolarWorld is that the company provides 20-year
product warranty as well as the high product quality," Ersoy noted.
"We
also plan to extend SolarWorld's panel production to Turkey with a factory that
has an capacity of 100 MW photovoltaic panel production. This is a strong
possibility which we include in our exclusivity agreement," he asserted.
Turkey
is an important market in a region, of which lots of its neighbors are
potential export customers, he said.
Ersoy
also said that they already determined the location for the factory in an
organized industrial site in central Anatolia.
"If
we finalize the decision to open a joint factory, the project will advance very
quickly," he said.
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Further cooperation possible with Inosolar
Frank
Asbeck, managing director of SolarWorld, said that the German company has solid
interest for deeper cooperation with Inosolar on increasing 60 MW PV modules
delivery to 100 MW.
He
also said that they are working on the viability of the idea of opening a solar
panel factory in central Anatolia with their Turkish partner.
"Either
for the first step it could be a German plant going over there but of course
main components can be brand new, other components can be of course out of
existing lines. This has to be decided. It depends on what quantity or what
production name plate the plant will have," he said.
"What
can come from Turkey is the frame, the glass and of course the back foil if the
tests are OK," he said, adding SolarWorld already supplies some of its
glass, aluminum and frames from Turkey.
He
noted that the local content level including Turkish labour in the planned
Turkish factory could reach up to 65 percent.
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Turkey on right track
Ten
years ago, Turkey had big plans for solar and wind energy and most of those
plans were realized over the years, German businessman said.
"It
is a very positive sign. It was a slow progress. However, that is the reason
why Turkey did not make too much mistakes," Asbeck said.
Countries
like Spain gave too much money too early to the sector, which turned into an
over subsidized malfunctioning solar market and missed "the learning curve
of falling prices or falling cost of PV," according to Asbeck.
"So
I think there was a continuous policy in Turkey, sometimes it was not perfect,
but it was persistent. So that was good for the market. We are happy that the
current government is also prioritizing PV, they think this is one urgently
needed source of energy," he said.
(Anadolu Agency)