Turkey’s first large solar-BESS power plant inaugurated

Oze Grup has built a 49 MW photovoltaic facility with a 34 MWh battery storage system southwest of Ankara. It is the first such hybrid power plant in Turkey.

Energy storage systems are indispensable for grid security and price stability, according to Chairman of Turkey’s Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA or EPDK) Mustafa Yılmaz. “Energy is no longer just about production. The real issue is ensuring that the electricity produced is integrated into the system at the right time, in the right place, and safely,” he said at the inauguration of the country’s first large solar power plant with energy storage, built by Oze Grup.

The site is in Sivrihisar in Eskişehir, some one hundred kilometers southwest of Ankara. The solar power plant has 49.2 MW in peak capacity. Its 29 MW grid connection matches the capability of the battery energy storage system (BESS), which has 34.1 MWh in capacity.

Oze Grup got the first project approval and the trial permit in the DGES category. The acronym is for licensed solar-storage systems, as opposed to self-consumption facilities. It was the Ankara-based construction company’s first energy project.

PVI Enerji designed and built the facility for Oze İnşaat ve Beton Sanayi. BS Distributed Energy Systems (BS DES) was involved in all stages. The other contractors are ELIN Enerji, HMK Demir Çelik, Sunroof Enerji and Solex Energy.

The chief regulator said the new hybrid power plant marks a vision change. “The sun doesn’t always shine, the wind doesn’t always blow. Renewable energy can only become a primary driver through storage,” Yılmaz stated.

He added that Turkey is now fully prepared for investments in renewable electricity plants with storage. The process has been rather slow, as the legislation for fast-tracking such projects was issued more than three years ago.

Oze Grup completed the hybrid power plant late last year. Notably, Polat Enerji received the approval from the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources for its licensed wind-storage system (DRES), the first in Turkey.