Turkey

The tender will be open to PV projects ranging in size from 10 to 20 MW. The Turkish government has set a ceiling price of TRY0.35 ($0.047)/kWh for the procurement exercise. The selected facilities will be located across 74 grid connection points and will have to rely on locally produced modules.

The Turkish PV module manufacturer said the capacity increase was necessary due to increasing demand from Turkey and abroad. The plan will be implemented by June 2021.

The $1.4 billion cost includes a 1 GW solar field 260km away in Konya. The factory was developed solely by Kalyon Solar Technologies after development partner Hanwha Q-Cells walked away from the project.

Minister of energy Fatih Dönmez announced the procurement exercise, which is part of a plan to relaunch the nation’s economy during the Covid-19 crisis.

The new regulations state that import duties on solar modules will now be calculated per kilogram rather than by square meter, as they were under the old regulations. This could favor Turkish manufacturers, as high-efficiency modules are generally now heavier than they were a few years ago. Under the previous rules, PV panel imports enjoyed reduced value-added tax rates as yields increased and module sizes remained unchanged.

Rules published in the official journal provide certainty on how storage systems will have to be connected to the grid and who will take care of the process on behalf of governmental institutions. The regulations are expected to benefit rooftop PV and up-to-1 MW ‘unlicensed’ projects

The one-off charge for PV systems with generation capacities of 10-100 kW will be almost halved. The fee levied on 100 kW-1 MW arrays will come down by 1-30.7%, depending on system size.

The nation deployed around 923 MW of new solar last year. Around 350 MW came in the form of unlicensed projects given an extension to their grid-connection deadlines.

The Turkish government is planning to assign 100 solar projects with a capacity of 10 MW each across 39 different provinces via a new procurement exercise. The tender will be held on April 20, 2020.

The factory, backed by the Turkish government in September, was originally intended to be built with the support of Korean solar manufacturer Hanwha Q Cells. The new partner is China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC). Production is planned to start next year.