"Türkerler Holding, which operates in Turkey's energy and construction sectors, plans to invest an additional $664 million in geothermal energy power plants in the Aegean city of Manisa, company Chairman Kazım Türker said yesterday.

Türker in a statement said that the company has already invested $200 million to complete two geothermal energy power plants - JES 1 and JES 2 - in the region.

The two plants have an installed capacity of 48 megawatts, and can produce 360 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity annually, he said.

The company is currently working on the JES 3 power plant. The $136-million plant will produce 220 million kWh of electricity annually, Türker said in the statement.

"After completing the third geothermal power plant in Manisa, we will respectively start constructing JES 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 power plants. We will invest almost $664 million in these new plants. Thanks to these plants, this region's installed power capacity will reach 248 MW of in the region. Thus, our total geothermal investment in Manisa will reach almost $1 billion," Türker announced.

The total energy generation from all plants will reach 1.8 billion kWh per year, Türker added. He, however, did not elaborate on when these plants will be completed.