Konya's Karapınar solar power plant starts full-capacity production

The world's largest solar power plant with single investor ownership in Konya has started full-capacity production.

The world's only investor-owned largest solar power plant in Konya Karapınar has started full-capacity production. The solar power plant in Karapınar, completed within the scope of the YEKA GES-1 tender, which will meet the electricity needs of a total of 2 million people, uses 3,256,038 panels.

Gürler Duman, the Deputy General Manager in charge of operations at Kalyon Energy Investments Inc. has announced that the Kalyon Karapınar Solar Power Plant, established in the Karapınar district of Konya and the world's largest investor-owned solar power plant, started full-capacity electricity production as of March.

In his statement, Duman mentioned that the power plant, which was completed under the Renewable Energy Resource Areas (YEKA) Solar Energy Power Plant (GES)-1 project, was established on an area of 20 thousand acres and has a 350-megawatt DC and 1000-megawatt licensed power capacity.

Duman stated that the construction of the power plant started in August 2020, and since then they have increased their energy production capacity. By commissioning a certain amount of panels almost every week, they have reached full capacity today. He said, “As of March, we have started full-capacity electricity production with a total of 3,256,038 panels”

Duman explained that the topography in Karapınar is very suitable for the GES (Solar Energy Power Plant) project, and the land in Konya Karapınar was selected by the government for the 1350-megawatt solar power plant project under the YEKA program.

Duman emphasized that Karapınar has the highest sun exposure time in Turkey and stated the following:

"We can say that this area, which is registered as the only desert-like land in Turkey, is also very suitable for building a solar power plant in terms of its topography. Considering that Karapınar has the highest sun exposure in the country in general, it is a very well-chosen and beautiful area. We started our power plant on this land with our own production panels based on the solar tracking system. The panels were produced with over 80% local content from raw material to panel in four stages at the Kalyon PV factory in Ankara and were used here."