Energo-Pro upgrades 280 MW hydropower plant in Turkey with PV park

Energo-Pro built a 40 MW photovoltaic system in eastern Turkey and integrated it with its Alpaslan 2 hydroelectric plant of 280 MW. The company has a 470.4 MW operational hydropower portfolio in the country.

Czech electricity producer, supplier and distributor Energo-Pro said it completed the upgrade of Alpaslan 2 into a hybrid power plant. It combined the hydropower plant of 280 MW in eastern Turkey with a 40 MW solar power plant.

The company built the photovoltaic system under the dam and connected it to the grid. It will benefit from the Yekdem subsidy mechanism, set in United States dollars, through 2030, the update reads. The Alpaslan 2 integrated facility has higher efficiency, greater flexibility and more stable renewable energy generation, Prague-based Energo-Pro said.

After acquiring the hydropower project in 2017, it commissioned the first Francis-type turbine in 2020. The remaining three units started operations the following year. Annual output from two 110 MW turbines and two of 30 MW each is 700 GWh. Their runners have diameters of 3.8 and 1.96 meters, respectively.

Energo-Pro has seven hydropower plants in Turkey, 14 in Bulgaria

Alpaslan 2 is Energo-Pro’s largest facility in Turkey, where it has six other hydropower plants. Altogether, excluding the PV unit, they have 470.4 MW in combined capacity and an average annual output of 1.2 TWh.

The company, founded in 1994, has 14 hydropower plants in neighboring Bulgaria. Totaling 166 MW, they average 428 GWh in annual production. Energo-Pro is also active in Georgia, Spain, Colombia and Brazil.

In 2021, Cengiz Holding added an 80 MW photovoltaic plant to its Lower Kaleköy (Aşağı Kaleköy) hydropower plant of 510 MW, in eastern Turkey. At its last round of renewable energy auctions, the country approved state support for the first larger floating solar power project.

Hydropower-PV hybrids gaining popularity in Balkans

In the region that Balkan Green Energy News covers, Romanian state-owned Hidroelectrica is installing PV units on the roofs of the buildings of its hydropower fleet. In addition, it is working on a portfolio of floating solar power plants, which it would possibly build in tandem with Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co. (Masdar). There is one floating PV plant in operation on a hydropower reservoir.

Akuo and Montenegrin government-controlled power utility Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG) are examining the possibility of installing a floating PV plant. EPCG is about to commission two small solar power plants on hydropower dams.

There are two photovoltaic farms next to hydroelectric facilities in Slovenia. Albania hosts a floating PV plant, one on a hydropower dam, and another floating solar project is underway.