Construction of 500 MW PV manufacturing facility in Turkey started

12/29/2017 | Print view

Starting from third person left to right: Howoo Shin, Senior Vice President and MEA Sales Head at Hanwha Q CELLS, Turkish Minister of Energy and National Resources, Berat Albayrak, Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey, Binali Yildirim, and Orhan Cemal Kalyoncu, Chairman of Kalyon - © Hanwha Q Cells — © Hanwha Q Cells

Starting from third person left to right: Howoo Shin, Senior Vice President and MEA Sales Head at Hanwha Q CELLS, Turkish Minister of Energy and National Resources, Berat Albayrak, Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey, Binali Yildirim, and Orhan Cemal Kalyoncu, Chairman of Kalyon

Hanwha Q Cells and its Turkish partner started construction of the first fully integrated PV manufacturing facility in Turkey. An R&D center will also be established.

The new production facility is the result of the Karapinar Renewable Energy Resource Area (“YEKA”) tender, which the Turkish government had awarded to the consortium of Hanwha Q CELLS and Kalyon Enerji in March 2017. In addition to the manufacturing facility, Hanwha-Kalyon joint venture will also establish an on-site R&D center to carry out various R&D projects in solar technology. The manufacturing facility will be fully integrated including ingot, wafer, cell and module production. Once completed, the modules produced by this facility will be used for the construction of the 1,000 MW (AC) solar power plant to be built in Konya-Karapinar, Turkey, the largest single-site plant in the world.

High efficiency solar cells

Hanwha Q CELLS will implement its proprietary Q.ANTUM high efficiency solar cell technology. Q.ANTUM technology boosts the real life yields from a solar system, by applying a passivation layer on the solar cells back side (PERC), by adding various technological features, like Hot-Spot Protection and TRA.Q laser marking and by controlling the various degradation effects (PID, LID, LeTID). Hanwha Q CELLS has vast experience in the PERC cell technology and reached the milestone of 1 billion mass produced Q.ANTUM solar cells in the summer of 2017.

Push for renewable energy

“Today, we lay the foundation for the future of energy technologies and enrich renewable alternative energy sources in Turkey”, says Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. “The YEKA project is one of the most ambitious energy projects in the world today, and can only be realized by the high competencies and expertise of Hanwha Q CELLS, a global leader in solar power, and Kalyon, a leader in construction and infrastructure projects.”

Seongwoo Nam, CEO of Hanwha Q CELLS said “Hanwha Q CELLS is proud to be joining forces with the government of the Republic of Turkey and Kalyon Enerji. We will contribute with our manufacturing expertise as well as our technology leadership. We are fully committed to execute this YEKA project successfully, leveraging the combined competencies of Hanwha Q CELLS and Kalyon Enerji and to make it an important milestone on Turkey´s path towards sustainable energy supply for the people of Turkey.” (HCN)