Turkey's Akfen Renewable Energy started electricity production at the company's first wind energy power plant in Kocalar located in the Canakkale province, according to the company's statement on Friday.
Akfen said it plans to reach 275 megawatts of installed wind capacity by the end of 2019, and further aims to reach 378 megawatts of wind and solar capacity with $530 million investment by 2020.
"We continue our investment in domestic and renewable energy resources. After we take other wind energy plants into operation, our total installed renewable energy capacity will increase to 632 megawatts," Karabeyoglu noted. The first of the plants - the Kocalar wind plant, with 30.6 megawatts of installed capacity, began electricity production, the statement said.
The power plant will meet the electricity demand of 120,000 consumers annually, the company noted. "Canakkale is one of the highest wind potential [areas] in Turkey. The Kocalar wind plant will generate 60,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year and prevent 48,000 tons of CO2 emissions," Kayril Karabeyoglu, the company's general manager was quoted in the statement.
Following startup of the Kocalar wind plant, three more of the company's wind plants that are currently under construction will start electricity production for a total installed capacity of 275 megawatts, the statement said.
The Ucpinar wind plant with 112 megawatts, the Hasanoba wind plant with 58 megawatts in Canakkale, along with 75 megawatts from the Denizli wind plant will be operational by the end of 2019, Akfen said in the statement. Turkey aims to boost investments in renewables and expand the use of domestic energy resources.
Turkey's current installed wind capacity reached 7,369 megawatts by the end of 2019, an increase of 7.2 percent year on year. The country ranked sixth among the European continent's 38 countries, including Russia and Ukraine, with an addition of 467 megawatts of installed wind capacity in 2018.
(Anadolu Agency)
