Turkey Kalyon Group 500MW PV Industrial Park Case

Aerial view of Kalyon Group's 500MW PV Industrial Park in Turkey

The case of Kalyon Group 500MW PV Industrial Park in Turkey demonstrates the country's important progress in the field of renewable energy, and is the first turnkey project of the whole PV industry chain exported from China to Turkey. The industrial park adopts advanced solar PV technology and realizes large-scale power production, which not only provides clean energy for the local community and promotes diversification of the energy structure, but also creates a large number of employment opportunities and promotes regional economic development. It has also created a large number of employment opportunities, promoted regional economic development, and become a model for the development of photovoltaic industry in Turkey and even in the Middle East.

I. Project Background

1.Strategic cooperation between China and Turkey

Kalyon Group signed a contract for a 500MW PV project in Turkey

As a landmark project under the “Belt and Road” initiative, the 500MW PV industrial park of Kalyon Group in Turkey is the first PV industry chain turnkey project exported from China to Turkey, covering the whole chain of crystal pulling, slicing, battery and module, which fills the blank of Turkey's local PV manufacturing industry.

2.Turkey's energy transformation needs

Turkey's dependence on fossil energy imports exceeds 70%, the government plans to raise the proportion of renewable energy generation to 50% in 2023, and the construction of photovoltaic industrial parks has become a key path.

Ⅱ.Core Objectives

Dimension	Target
‌Capacity Targets	Annual production of 500MW PV modules
‌Employment Driven	Create 1,400 local jobs
‌Technology Transfer	Achieve 80% localized production of equipment
‌Energy Substitution	Generate 730 million kWh of electricity annually to meet the needs of 200,000 households.

III. Implementation Program

1. Layout of the whole industry chain

The first phase of the project was constructed in 2019-2021, and completed the crystal pulling workshop, which contains monocrystalline silicon rods with a length of 2.7 meters, the slicing production line, in which the cutting precision is ±0.02mm, the battery workshop, whose conversion efficiency is more than 22.5%, and the module workshop with a power of 550W/block.

The second phase of the project will be constructed in 2021-2023, and the production capacity will be increased to 1GW, with a new production line for PERC bifacial cell technology.

2. Key technology breakthroughs

The project adopts the “string inverter + energy storage” architecture, equipped with anti-islanding protection devices, with a grid response time of less than 200ms, and deploys the Acrel-1000DP intelligent monitoring system to realize the digital management of the whole process.

3. Construction Milestones

In December 2019, the project was officially opened at the Bakent OIZ Industrial Park in Ankara, with a groundbreaking ceremony attended by the Deputy Minister of Industry of Turkey.

In August 2020, the first monocrystalline silicon rod in the project was successfully rolled out of the production line, and the crystal pulling workshop started production.

Kalyon Photovoltaic Industry Chain Project Produces Its First Bars

In September 2021, the first phase of the 500MW project was handed over and the first module was exported to the European Union.

Ⅳ.Commissioning and Operation and Maintenance

1. System integration

The project commissioning carried out 72 hours of full-load pressure test to verify that the yield rate of cells exceeded 98.5%. The AI visual inspection system was calibrated, and the accuracy of hidden crack identification was increased to 99.2%.

2. Intelligent Operation and Maintenance System

Module	Function realization
Drone Inspection	Automatically generate hot spot distribution maps every week with fault location accuracy of ±0.5m².
Predictive Maintenance	Analyze equipment failure rate based on big data, reduce operation and maintenance cost by 30%.
Localized Training	Train 200 Turkish technical engineers with O&M response time less than 4 hours.

V. Risk Response

On-site guidance by Chinese PV technical engineers

1. Challenges of transnational collaboration

The project adopts the mode of “modular construction + localized assembly”, which shortens the equipment transportation cycle by 40% compared with the traditional EPC mode. Establishing a bilingual technical document library to minimize communication errors.

2. External environment risk

With reference to the Turkish Building Code TS648, the wind resistance of the PV project's mounts is upgraded to Grade 12. China Export Credit Insurance is taken out to cover the risk of exchange rate fluctuation and policy change.

VI. Comprehensive Benefits

1. Economic Benefits

The total revenue of this PV project is more than USD 100 million, with an IRR of 12.5%, and a large number of neighboring logistic and accessory industries will be driven to grow, and the annual increase of regional GDP will be increased by 0.8%.

2. Social Value

President Erdogan of Turkey praised the project for “enhancing the global status of the national PV industry”, making it a “model project for Sino-Turkish cooperation in production capacity”, and receiving inspection groups from 35 countries.

3. Environmental Contribution

Emission reduction of 580,000 tons of CO₂ per year, helping Turkey to achieve the 2030 peak carbon target.

Project Inspiration

Through the mode of “whole industry chain output + intelligent operation and maintenance + local integration”, the 500MW PV industrial park of Kalyon Group in Turkey has realized a breakthrough from zero to GW production capacity in 3 years, and become a benchmark case of “Belt and Road” new energy cooperation. Benchmark case.

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