Vestas competes with rivals for Turkey wind power sales

Vestas Wind Systems, the world’s largest wind-turbine maker, will compete with Enercon and Nordex for market share in Turkey as the government awards more wind-power licenses, according to a company managing director.“Vestas is the biggest wind turbine supplier in Turkey with about 30 percent market share,” Mehmet Ali Neyzi, a managing director in charge of Turkey and the Middle East for Danish-based Vestas. “Now that the government has paved the way for new licenses, after a suspension period, competition has started to increase, and we want to keep our market share, though some minor fall is possible.”A new law guarantees the government will purchase wind and hydro power for 7.3 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour, and there are additional incentives planned for using locally made equipment, potentially adding 0.4 cents to 2.4 cents to the guaranteed price for five years. This is attracting investment after three years of lull, Neyzi said. Purchase prices for wind power in Europe are about 13.15 U.S. cents.Turkey, which has 50,475 megawatts of total power capacity including 1,406 megawatts from wind, received wind-power license applications for about 80,000 megawatts in 2007. The Turkish Electricity Transmission Company, or TEİAŞ, started auctions in February to award licenses for 8,000 megawatts of wind power and has awarded licenses for about half that total, according to the utility’s website. The government aims for 20,000 megawatts of wind power by 2020, about one-quarter of total capacity.Vestas is also competing with General Electric and Siemens to supply wind power equipment in Turkey, Neyzi said. Enercon and Nordex are its biggest rivals in the sector, he said.[HH] Striving to cut foreign dependenceTurkey wants to increase hydroelectric, wind and solar power to cut dependence on gas from Iran and Russia and meet increasing power demand, which Neyzi estimates is growing 6 percent to 8 percent annually.“We urgently need the secondary legislation to be passed” to provide the additional incentives for using locally produced wind-power equipment, Neyzi said.“Wind equipment prices fell about 20 percent from 2008 and this will help the government to reach its wind-power capacity target,” Neyzi said. Vestas is delivering orders within six to eight months, compared with about two years before the financial crisis hit global demand in 2008, he said.Vestas, which has manufacturing plants in Spain, Italy, Germany and Denmark, is studying options to build blades and nacelle casings in Turkey, Neyzi said. “Turkey can be a good manufacturing location with its logistics advantages and quality workforce,” he said.If Vestas builds its own blades in Turkey, it will do so through its wholly owned local unit, Neyzi said. Vestas has a Turkish subcontractor in western Bursa province, which builds turbine towers, he said.General Electric, or GE, which aims to expand its Turkish energy business, may revive a plan developed before the 2008 credit crisis to build wind turbines in Turkey, Mete Maltepe, the head of GE’s local energy units said in an interview in November.Vestas is working with Aksa Akrilik Kimya Sanayii, a Turkish maker of acrylic and carbon fibers, to procure carbon fibers for its wind turbine blades.

Interest in renewables rising, Frost says

The recovery of the global economy and rising oil prices are encouraging investors to turn to renewable energy, according to a recent report by Frost & Sullivan. With increasing attention on the development of renewables, Turkey is among the countries that will witness strong growth in this area, the researcher and consultancy firm said.According to Frost & Sullivan estimates, non-hydro renewables - wind , solar, biomass, geothermal and marine energy - are expected to more than double their global share from 3.6 percent in 2010 to 7.7 percent in 2020.“Turkey is highly dependent on natural gas imports for power generation,” said the report. “This is prompting greater investments in alternative generating options. The state is aiming to increase their share notably by 2023 in the energy mix.”Turkey‘s energy demand is expected to grow by 6-8 percent in the forthcoming years, the report said, emphasizing the key driver of growing interest in renewables.Investments in the solar market have lagged behind due to “lacking complementary regulations,” according to Frost. “The market will hopefully accelerate after the completion of the grid connection regulation that will define the procedures and the technical details of the connection of the solar systems to the grid,” said the report.For wind energy, Turkey’s installed capacity has reached 1,266 megawatts as of the end of 2010, Frost said. However, companies face a “long licensing period” with many procedural changes implemented through the applied projects, the consultancy said. Frost found the 2023 target to reach 20,000 MW in installed capacity “a quite optimistic goal” within the current bureaucratic framework.With a potential of 600 MW, Turkey ranks seventh in the world in geothermal energy. “After the passing of the latest law declaring the new feed-in tariffs among renewables in 2010, the industry promises a brighter future,” Frost said in the report.

Zorlu to build largest geothermal power station in Turkey

Zorlu Doğal Elektrik, a sister company of Turkish energy producer Zorlu Enerji, will construct the country’s largest geothermal power station in Kızıldere in the southwestern province of Denizli.Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation and Fuji Electric, both world-renowned companies, won the tender to build the power station, which will provide 60 megawatts of electrical power and 50 megawatts of thermal power capacity.On average 1 MW of power can supply electricity to as many as 300 U.S. households per year. According to TurkStat figures, the average person in Turkey consumes 540 kW of electricity in one year.“We have made an important step toward Turkey’s largest geothermal power station, which we aim to finish in 2013,” Arif Özozan, Zorlu’s general director, said in a statement.Through this new investment, the group aims to support new working areas, particularly in greenhouse business and thermal tourism. “We will give priority to both local employment and organic agriculture,” he said.Zorlu will soon possess a steam turbine with a capacity of 650 tons per hour that will be produced in Japan and delivered to the group in July. It will be installed at the Kızıldere geothermal power station that Zorlu Enerji took over in 2008.The company first did some rehabilitation works to increase the station’s capacity from 7 to 15 megawatts, according to Özozan. Drilling and exploration works then followed for about a year, after which Zorlu decided to invest in Turkey’s largest geothermal power station.