Çalik Group acquires 50% stake in Turkish solar EPC contractor Halk Enerji

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The Turkish solar market seems now to be gaining momentum. The segment for unlicensed PV projects up to 1 MW in particular has seen large growth. Thanks to this, Turkish solar EPC contractor Halk Enerji, which is quite active in the segment, has now found a financially healthy investor.

Local industrial conglomerate Çalik Group has, in fact, acquired a 50% stake in the company, as revealed to pv magazine by the group’s general manager Yalçın Adıyaman. The two companies now plan to create a holding company, whose focus will be the development of renewable energy power plants.

Adiyaman said that Halk Enerji is expected to reach a turnover of $500 million in 2017. Adiyaman also added that Turkey-based Aktif Bank, which is itself part of the Çalik Group, is able to provide financing for projects of every size. The new company will rely on the group’s network across the world. Adiyaman stressed that the two companies are also considering entering the storage business, and other segments such as solar leasing.

Halk Enerji will focus on PV markets in Central Asia, the Balkans and the MENA region. In 2017, the company will be particularly active in Turkey, where the segment for unlicensed PV projects up to 1 MW is expected to see strong growth. Adiyaman believes that approximately 2 GW of these systems could be connected to the grid in Turkey this year. The main reason for this expected growth, Adiyaman explained, is the reduction of the grid-connection fee, which was reduced from $40,000 to between $5,000 and $10,000 at the beginning of 2017.

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On April 1, the Turkish Ministry of Economy introduced antidumping duties on Chinese solar products. The duties for solar modules will range between $20 and $25 per square meter.

Ates Ugurel, founder of Turkey’s Solar Energy Society Solarbaba, told pv magazine that “the imposed antidumping fee will increase the PV panel’s cost by approximately 30 to 35%. The current average PV panel price is around $0.35/W, and it will now rise to $0.45 to $0.48/W.”

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