With an expected growth of 500-600 MW for 2016 the Turkish photovoltaic market is gaining speed. Currently around 370 MW are installed. The focus so far are ground mounted installations and larger rooftop installations. However, the residential market and smaller commercial rooftops are also seeing greater customer interest, according to Yonca Kilic, speaker of Zenit Enerji. Under the new daughter company, Sunroof Energy the Izmir based system integrator just introduced a financing and full service package for residential and commercial rooftop installations from 2 kW up to 200 kW. The payback period is up to five years and installations are provided by local contractors. We are also planning to provide leasing schemes for residential installations, Kilic said.
With a 100,000 rooftops action plan the Turkish government wants to kickstart the Turkish residential solar market. Details though still have to be clarified according to government officials at ICCI.
BayWa r.e. also wants to enter the growing Turkish solar market. We came here to ICCI to negotiate with potential local distribution partners, Managing Director Friedhelm Enslin said. According to Giovanni Capussela, General Director of Italian based Greenercom investment conditions in Turkey improved over the last months, due to a new regulation, that enforces project developers to finish their projects before selling. Turkey is by far the most interesting country in Europe for solar investments, Capussela said. Ioannis Lysaridis, Country Manager of tracker manufacturer Mecasolar expressed a similar estimation. The Spanish based tracker manufacturer just finished a 5 MW project with its local EPC partner Seiso.
Another trend this year`s ICCI saw was the increasing number of Iranian solar companies and officials looking for international and Turkish investment partners. The Iranian wind and solar market is ready to start und Turkey is an important bridge, Roberto Cognetti, Chairman of the Board of Tehran based HG Engineering & Investments said.
Around 14.000 professionals and 279 exhibitors joined this year`s ICCI, that closed its doors last friday evening. This was a little lesser than expected mainly due to the cancellation of several exhibitors especially from China for expected safety problems in Turkey. ICCI 2017 will take place from May 3-5 2017.
Hans-Christoph Neidlein/Hannover Fairs Turkey
