Turkey's Akfen Renewable Energy installed its third solar power plant on the shore of Lake Van and ramped up solar capacity in the region to 37 megawatts with an investment of $66 million, a statement from the company said Wednesday. The third solar plant, the 13-megawatt PSI Engil follows the first two plants, Omicron Ercis and Engil, which began operations in September 2018.
The company aims to reach 1,000 megawatts of installed power capacity from domestic and renewable energy resources by the end of 2020. In line with this goal, the company's total investment volume in the three plants located at the side of Turkey's largest body of water, Lake Van, stands at $66 million.
The three plants, with an estimated 60 gigawatt-hours of electricity production, are expected to meet the needs of 80,000 people, Akfen said in the statement. Lake Van is located in the Eastern Anatolia region near the border of Iran. It covers an area of 1,434 square miles (3,713 square km) and has a diameter of more than 74 miles (119 km) at its widest point.
After the PSI Engil became operational, Akfen's electricity production capacity reached 408 megawatts out of which solar totaled 108 megawatts. The three plants aim to prevent 25,804 tons of CO2 emissions.
(Anadolu Agency)
