Zorlu Energy will start investing around $700 million in Turkey and $200 million in Pakistan in 2018 and will focus more on merger and acquisitions in the second half of the year, the company head said on Wednesday.
Sinan Ak, Zorlu Holding Energy Group head, in an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency, said the company has expanded its renewable energy investments and will continue to participate in new renewable energy tenders in the country.
The company will take part in wind energy tenders for 500 megawatts of capacity in the last week of December organized by Turkey's Electricity Transmission, who will offer a total of around 2,300 megawatts of capacity.
The company will accelerate investments for two new geothermal power plants - Alasehir 2 and Kizildere 4, located in the Aegean region of the country, Ak said.
The total investment volume for these power plants, which plan for completion in 2020, will reach up to $450 million.
Furthermore, Ak confirmed that Zorlu Enerji would start a small-sized solar power plant at a cost of $18 million.
'We will invest around $150 million next year in our electricity distribution region,' he said.
Zorlu Energy took over the electricity distribution company Osmangazi Electricity Distribution and Osmangazi Electricity Retail Company for $360 million last year. The company distributes electricity to Eskisehir, Kutahya, Afyon, Usak and Bilecik serving more than 2.5 million people.
Ak explained the company's solar capacity would grow in Pakistan, where they already started to construct a 100-megawatt power plant.
'We will now start 200 megawatts in solar energy in the country,' he said, adding that they plan to complete the investment in 2020.
- Focus on new merger and acquisitions in Turkey
Zorlu is also focusing on acquiring other energy assets in the country and confirmed that the company is interested in buying one of the three natural gas power plants that are set to be up for sale.
In addition, he said that the company is considering adding one more electricity distribution company to its portfolio and is looking at merger and acquisitions in different sectors.
'We plan to focus more on these in the second half of 2018,' he said.
- Escalation in electric car usage and car-sharing technology will become business of the future
The company is also anxious to break into a new market providing technology for an electric car sharing system as the company forecasts that a proliferation of their usage is certain, followed by car-sharing schemes that can be accessed through smart technology and applications.
A Turkish consortium including Anadolu Group, BMC, Kiraca Holding, Turkcell, and Zorlu Holding will jointly manufacture Turkey's first homemade car, which is set to be fully electric.
'We plan to focus more on smart grids and especially applications for electric cars. As electric cars increase, there will be many cars in the cities so car-sharing will spread,' he said, adding that, 'Personal electric cars will be a part of the public transportation.'
He explained that, 'An electric car driver will be able to find people on the way to work via the application, so they will share the cars. We plan to contribute to Turkey's electric car production with this kind of applications and smart systems. We will channel around $30 million in these systems.'
'All these are the business of the future,' he concluded.
By Nuran Erkul Kaya
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr