Aktif Bank and Halk Enerji set up joint venture to deploy 100 MW of solar in Turkey

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Turkey-based Aktif Bank, a unit of industrial conglomerate Çalik Group, and Turkish EPC contractor Halk Enerji announced the creation of the joint venture Aktif Halk Enerji Yatirimlari A.S., of which both will hold a 50% stake.

The new company will invest in both licensed and unlicensed PV power projects in Turkey with a combined capacity of 100 MW, Aktif Bank said in its press release. Under the terms of the agreement, Halk Enerji’s unit Halk Enerji Insaat A.S. will provide EPC services for the project pipeline, while Aktif Bank will offer its “SPP+finance” package, which includes project financing, to interested developers.

Aktif Bank stressed that the projects will be offered to the investors in “USD at the capital markets as a high-yielding and reliable investment opportunity.”

“This initiative,” the company added in the release, “could be a substantial R&D platform for energy storage to enable that renewable energy-based facilities will be an alternative in literal terms, besides creating a highly-important new player in contracting and investment across the solar energy industry.”

The Çalik Group acquired a 50% stake in Halk Enerji in early April, as revealed to pv magazine by the group’s general manager Yalçın Adıyaman at the time.

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Halk Enerji 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.

Currently, all solar PV projects under 1 MW in size do not need to obtain a license from the Turkish government.

The country has set a target of 5 GW of solar PV capacity by 2023, which begins with a goal of 1 GW installed by the end of 2016.

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