The price of $3.48 per kilowatt-hour determined by the Turkish-German consortium of Siemens Gamesa, Türkerler and Kalyon for the Wind Energy Renewable Energy Resource Areas (YEKA) contract it won last week is a record price worldwide and is expected to decrease Turkey's energy imports of nearly $55 billion per year, reducing energy costs both for the state and households.The 1,000 megawatts (MW) power plant will provide greener energy, lower electricity prices and affect consumers positively, Kalyon Holding Energy Group Chairman Murtaza Ata said.
Ata recalled that the sale price of $10.50 per kilowatt-hour for the Mechanism for Supporting Renewable Energy Resources (YEKDEM) was reduced to one-third.
The turbine plant will go into production for the wind YEKA in 2019, and then we will immediately start installing the power plant. We will have completed 1,000 MW of capacity by the end of 2021," Ata said.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency after submitting the best bid for the YEKA contract last week, he explained that the turbine plant will be built by Siemens Gamesa while Türkerler and Kalyon Holding will be undertaking the construction of the power plant, adding that they have a 50-50 partnership with Türkerler in the power plant investment.
He stressed that along with the Türkerler and Kalyon analysis teams, the turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa also contributes to work on the energy potential in the region with the participation of their global experts.
"The capacity factor of the regions determined by the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry is very high. We want to build 700 MW of 1,000 MW capacity in Thrace, 200 MW in Sivas and the rest in Eskişehir. In this way, we will choose the ones with the highest capacity factors among the regions," he said.
He said that the bid per kilowatt-hour for the wind YEKA contract is below electricity prices on the free market, noting that it has the advantage in funding since the purchase guarantee will be applied for 15 years, even though the project's profitability is not at the expected level.
He stressed that the 15-year purchase guarantee provided for the project will create a significant advantage in financing and that renewable energy will also positively affect project financing.
The chairman also informed that electricity prices on the market are currently around $4 per kilowatt-hour. He stated that the bid of $3.48 in the tender will pull down the prices, which will directly affect the consumer positively.
"In addition to 65 percent domestic contribution, the sale price of $10.50 per kilowatt-hour was also reduced to one-third within the scope of the Renewable Energy Resources Support Mechanism[YEKDEM]," Ata said, recalling that in the solar YEKA bidding, the YEKDEM price of $20 per kilowatt-hour with domestic contribution was also reduced by one-third to $6.99.
"This shows how accurate the Energy Ministry's YEKA policy is," he added.
Explaining that the total investment for the wind YEKA project will amount to $1 billion, Ata said that they want to use as much financing as possible and they will use several sources such as eximbanks, development banks and Turkish banks.
Prefacing that the project will be licensed for 49 years and that the price per kilowatt-hour will be $3.48 for 15 years, he said, "The turbine plant will go into production for the wind YEKA in 2019, and then we will immediately start installing the power plant. We will have completed 1,000 MW of capacity by the end of 2021."
Ata stressed that the efficiency ratio of the turbines at the plant is high and that Siemens Gamesa's latest technology will be used, pointing out that this efficiency is 8 percent to 9 percent higher than the efficiency of Chinese turbines. "In this regard, we will produce 4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year with the wind YEKA. The anticipated annual production for the project sites was discussed as 3 billion kilowatt-hours, but thanks to technological superiority, electricity production will be much higher," Ata said.