One of biggest PV parks on Earth expanding to 1.85 GW

A solar power plant of 500.5 MW in peak capacity will be built just south of the existing Kalyon Karapınar photovoltaic park in Turkey’s Konya province. It is already one of the biggest in the world, especially excluding China. Kalyon Enerji said it would become a 1.85 GW complex.

Turkey hosts Europe’s largest solar power plant. Or rather, it hosts the largest PV plant among all European countries, because Kalyon Karapınar is located in Konya province in Asia Minor.

At 1.35 GW in peak capacity and a 1 GW grid connection, it is one of the biggest in the world, especially if China is excluded. Namely, according to available data, most of the top 20 PV parks are located there. Kalyon Enerji, a joint venture of Kalyon Holding and International Holding Co. (IHC), based in the United Arab Emirates, completed the facility in 2023.

The company recently began groundworks on its expansion by 500.5 MW in peak terms, translating to 385 MW on the high-voltage network. Kalyon Enerji expects to finish it by the end of next year. It is already building the transformer as well.

Spanning 643 hectares, the site is just south of Kalyon Karapınar. The company expects the new unit to account for over 1 TWh of the estimated 4 TWh in annual output at the solar power complex.

With nearly one million new panels, total number would climb to more than four million.

Kalyon Karapınar introduced agrisolar concept to Turkey

Kalyon Karapınar was the winning project at Turkey’s first renewable energy auction, in 2017. The company won state support for the 500.5 MW extension in February this year, also under the Renewable Energy Zones (REZ or YEKA) mechanism.

Construction of the existing facility started in August 2020 on degraded and desert land. The operator’s affiliate Kalyon PV manufactured the solar panels, with a content rate of 80%. In the meantime, it reportedly climbed to some 90%.

Kalyon PV manufactures solar panels with a 90% domestic content rate

The solar power plant features single-axis trackers, moving the panels east to west along the sun’s path.

According to Kalyon Enerji, increased shading and the soil’s higher water retention capability enabled the creation of a microclimate with lower temperatures and more biodiversity. The giant PV system in Konya was the first in Turkey to allow farmers in the area to use it for sheep grazing, the company said

Wind, solar reach 39 GW in total

Notably, another round of auctions was completed this week, with 650 MW awarded across seven provinces. The authorities earlier canceled the bidding for two YEKA zones due to permitting delays.

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar said the combined capacity of wind and photovoltaics in Turkey has reached 39 GW. It means that solar power climbed to around 25 GW.