An entrepreneur in Adiyaman province solved his problem of high electricity bills by generating electricity from solar panels integrated into his factory.
A food factory in Adiyaman, a province located in the southeast of Turkey, will generate electricity from solar panels installed on the roof. The system cost 710,000 Turkish liras ($323,000).
Speaking to The Anadolu Agency, entrepreneur Fehmi Yilmaz, 32, said that he applied to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock to get financial support for his solar plant.
After obtaining approval, he installed 800 solar panels and 8 convertors.
“During winter, the system generates 20,000 kilowatt of electricity per month, and that is roughly equal to 4,000 Turkish liras,” he said.
He said that during the summer, electricity generation and efficiency will be higher. He plans to sell excess electricity to Turkish electricity distribution corporation, TEDAS.
He added that even though the cost of the system seems expensive, in a couple of years he will see the financial benefits of the system.
Adiyaman province is located in the southeast of Turkey and the city has an abundant solar potential with 252 sunny days per year, according to Adil Alan, a regional official for the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock.
It was previously announced that the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock – as part of the rural development plan -- would provide 50 percent of the cost to factories if they planned to establish solar plant.
Under recently passed legislation, individual companies can generate over one megawatt of electricity by using wind turbines, solar panels or biomass technologies and sell any surplus to regional distribution companies.
With electricity consumption rising each year, Turkey is seeking to decrease its energy bill, which currently stands at around $60 billion annually. It is attempting to increase its installed electricity capacity to 110,000 megawatts by 2023, from its current level of 68,000 megawatts.
Anadolu Agency