RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENTS IN SPAIN AND TURKEY

French energy company Total and Spanish Powertis will jointly realize a solar project with a total capacity of 950 MW across Spain. Madrid-based solar power developer Powertis SA has signed a joint development agreement (PPA) with the French energy group Total covering about 1 GW solar power project in Spain. Powertis said in a statement that Total had established a joint venture (JV), in which Total had the right to purchase from solar projects developed by February 2021. Powertis has solar projects with a total capacity of 950 MW at various stages in various regions of Spain. An investment of $ 767.5 million is needed for the development of these projects.
Solar energy is a key energy source to mitigate the high costs of Turkey’s imported gas, according to the head of the Turkish Solar Energy Industry Association, GENSED, Halil Demirdag, on Wednesday. One thousand megawatts (MW) of installed capacity in solar energy will prevent $110 million worth of imported natural gas, Demirdag told Anadolu Agency’s energy desk in an exclusive interview.
“In solar energy installed capacity, Turkey’s share in the world has reached 1%. Turkey is very lucky in terms of geography when it comes to solar energy,” he said.
Turkey, which is highly dependent on natural gas for its domestic energy consumption, imported a total 50.36 billion cubic meters of gas in 2018. These import costs are seen as substantial on the country’s energy budget, and therefore, the country is focusing heavily on renewable energy investments, he said. He explained that investments in renewables and solar in particular have lower financial costs, the results of which will see greater installed capacity in Turkey. Turkey’s current installed solar capacity is around 6,000 MW, but Demirdag believes this will surpass 10,000 MW this year. Global installed capacity in solar energy has recently surpassed 500,000 MW, more than 80% of which came in the last five years, Demirdag noted.
In China, considered the world’s biggest solar panel manufacturers with a 90% share, the coronavirus outbreak has had an impact on solar production and its supply chain.
However, Demirdag expressed hope and said that these concerns are already being quelled by Europe’s decision to have at least a capacity of 10,000 MW in solar panel production. He also referred to requests from European buyers in the past 15-20 days who are interested in purchasing textiles, automatives and spare parts from Turkey to shore up the shortfall in trade from China.