More than 1.5 million solar panels have been produced since 2019 at the Kalyon Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Technologies Factory, Turkey's first and among the world's leading integrated solar panel manufacturer. As a result, by connecting these panels to the solar power plant in central Konya’s Karapınar district, the country has avoided importing approximately $30 million worth of natural gas.
The facility has been established on an area of approximately 100,000 square meters (1.08 million square feet) in the Başkent Organized Industrial Zone (OIZ) in the capital Ankara, where 75% of the production process for inglot, wafer, cell and module types of solar panels is carried out domestically.
Different types of solar panels suitable for consumer needs are also produced at the factory, which increased its production capacity from 500 megawatts to 1,200 megawatts in the last quarter of 2021. These consumer-leaning products include transparent modules, aesthetically designed black modules, 54-cell roof type modules and a back sheet module.
With an installed capacity of 628 megawatts, the Karapınar power plant has produced 812,303 megawatt-hours of energy so far. It aims to use 3.5 million solar panels to harness energy at the power plant, aiming to reach a total installed power capacity of 1,300 megawatts. Once the project is complete, the power plant will meet the electricity needs of 2 million people and the share of solar energy in Turkey's electricity production will increase to 20%.
Ersan Tüfekçi, a member of the Kalyon Energy executive board, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that when the project is complete, the power plant will be one of the few solar power generation facilities in the world.
"We have increased the capacity of the factory and our employees have increased to 2,100 people. With the capacity we have just established, we have become a factory that sells panels to both the power plant in Konya Karapınar and our domestic and foreign customers," he said.
While noting that they were the first company to produce M10 type solar panels outside of China, Tüfekçi stressed that "there are great incentives for the use of renewable energy and green energy all over the world."
He added that they plan to export to countries in Europe and the United States, in line with the demand and green transformation efforts around the globe.
"Kalyon branded solar panels will be available for use in large facilities in America" once the certification process is completed, he said.
"We aim to sell to customers in America and Europe by the last quarter of this year," he added.
Tüfekçi explained that the natural gas crisis in the global markets, mostly fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the increasing oil prices have started to change the balance in energy. "These developments have also increased the interest in renewable energy. Therefore, with the incentive packages that have been announced one after the other, solar energy should be popularized, especially in roof applications in residential and industrial facilities," he underlined.