Turkey to produce 'made in Turkey' geothermal equipment

By Gulsen Cagatay and Ebru Sengul

ANKARA (AA) - The newly-inaugurated OrmaTurk company in Turkey’s Aegean coastal city Izmir on Monday will bring a lot of geothermal plant equipment know-how to the Turkish geothermal industry, the U.S.-based parent company's Chief Executive said Tuesday.

During the International Geothermal Conference (IGC Turkey 2017), of which Anadolu Agency is the global communication partner, Chief Executive Officer Isaac Angel of parent company, Ormat Technologies, in an exclusive interview spoke about the new Turkish company's structure and its planned contribution to the country's geothermal energy sector.

"We are probably the biggest power plant provider in Turkey over the last 10 years with a 52 percent share of all operations in Turkey. We will also support another 11 power plants during 2017 and 2018," Angel said.

He explained that in Turkey, Ormat Technologies Inc. does not operate power plants but provides technical support and builds power plants for Turkish developers.

"Yesterday OrmaTurk started its operations as a Turkish company 100 percent owned by Ormat Technologies. The employees are Turkish, including the management," he said, and added that because of geothermal potential in the Turkish market, their investment in the country was made with strong confidence.

The facility will not only supply customers' products, but more importantly, Turkey will gain know-how on how to build turbines from A to Z, which can be deemed "Made in Turkey," he said.

Localization of turbine production through the Made in Turkey concept helps them as a company, partners and customers to obtain subsidies from the Turkish government, Angel explained.

The company's presence in Turkey involves the construction of power plants for Turkish developers but they refrain from functioning as operators.

This decision is based on the servicing of a very dense number of customers, which he maintained Ormat would compete against if the company also operates these plants.

"That’s why we decided not to invest to build our own facilities in Turkey," he said, but added that if the Turkish market continues to grow as expected, the company plans to enlarge its facilities in the coming years.

"We always look for opportunities in Turkey," he concluded.

Ormat Technologies, Inc. is the only vertically-integrated company primarily engaged in the geothermal and recovered energy power business.

The company designs, develops, owns and operates geothermal and recovered energy-based power plants around the world.