Turkey's first integrated solar panel factory opens

Kalyon Holding's integrated solar panel facility, which will be operational with an investment of $ 1.4 billion, opens in August.

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Dönmez examined Turkey's first and only fully integrated solar panel production factory in Ankara Başkent Organized Industrial Zone, which was built with the investment of Kalyon Holding and whose factory assembly is nearing completion. The factory, which was established with an investment of 1.4 billion dollars together with Karapınar and will be opened next August with the participation of President Tayyip Erdoğan, has an annual production capacity of 500 MW of solar panels. When production starts in the factory, which has a total closed area of 100 thousand square meters, 1,400 people will be employed.

"We had the opportunity to examine a large technology center"

Stating that they are in the only integrated solar panel factory in Turkey, Europe and the Middle East, Dönmez said, "This facility is the only integrated facility that brings together 4 different productions." Fatih Dönmez, stating that an R&D center will be established in the facility and approximately 100 engineers and researchers will take part, said, "We set out with the motto of more domestic, more renewable energy. We want to convert our own resources into electricity with our own domestic technology. The panels to be produced in this facility will first be used in the solar power plant to be built in Karapınar. Then, we will send domestic technology abroad by using export opportunities abroad. We will see solar panels with the inscription 'Made In Turkey' in different parts of the world. Turkey's sun will shine even brighter in the future."

Cemal Kalyoncu, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kalyon Holding, who made statements during the factory visit with the Minister of Energy, pointed out that the Solar Panel Production factory is also of great importance in terms of Turkey's domestic and national energy policy and said: "3 years ago, we pressed the button for the Karapınar Solar Energy Plant, which was very important to the then Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Mr. Berat Albayrak. The panels of the 1000 MW Karapınar Solar Power Plant, which will be established with a locality rate of over 70 percent, will be produced in this factory. Now, when this and Karapınar are operational, the share of solar energy in Turkey's electricity generation will increase by 20 percent. With both the solar panels we will produce in the Ankara Industrial Zone and the electricity we will produce in the Karapınar Solar Power Plant, we will contribute 400 million dollars annually to the country's economy to close the current account deficit.