First Solar, Inc. has been awarded interconnection rights for three planned utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) plants in southern Turkey. The rights were issued following a competitive tender, administered by the Turkish Electricity Transmission Company (TEIAS), as part of the country’s Renewable Energy Resources Support Mechanism (YEKDEM) program.
Subject to regulatory approval, the three projects, with a combined capacity of 19 megawatts (MW)AC, will be developed in the Mugla, Burdur, and Urfa provinces, in southern Turkey. When complete, the plants will produce an estimated 31.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year, sufficient to power an estimated 14,000 average homes in the country.
“We entered the Turkish market, less than twelve months ago, with a strong belief in its potential to evolve into one of Europe’s first truly sustainable PV markets," said Christopher Burghardt, vice president for Europe at
First Solar. "Our success in securing these connection rights vindicates our position and reinforces our confidence in the country and in the strength of its regulatory framework for renewable energy."
All three projects will be powered by First Solar’s advanced module technology.
1 REFERENCES - First Solar recently set a new world record for cadmium-telluride (CdTe) PV solar cell conversion efficiency, achieving 21.5 percent efficiency certified at the Newport Corporation's Technology and Applications Center (TAC) PV Lab in the United States.