Turkish renewable energy company, Guris, launched its first wind energy power plant in Odessa, Ukraine, the top official of the company told Anadolu Agency during the opening ceremony of the plant on Sept. 21.
Guris became the first Turkish energy company to invest in Ukraine with its €55 million wind plant, Ovid, Cem Ozkok, deputy manager of Guris Holding, said.
A number of sector representatives from Turkey and Ukraine attended the opening ceremony of the 32.4-megawatt (MW) plant built in the Ovidiopol district of Odessa.
The plant consists of nine 3.6-megawatt turbines to generate 118 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year - enough to meet the needs of 32,000 households, he said.
Guris will sell its electricity production to the state electricity company of Ukraine for 10 years at €0.10 per kilowatt-hour, Ozkok added.
The company signed an electricity purchase agreement with the State Enterprise Energorynok in August 2018. The Ukrainian institution granted the purchase of electricity from the Ovid plant up to Dec. 31, 2029.
-Further renewable plans abroad
Ozkok also detailed the company's further plans in Ukraine, which involve a second 120 MW wind plant.
"We received the construction license for 40 MW part of our second wind plant on Sept. 20. We will try to receive the licenses for the remaining capacity within this year," he said.
He explained that the granting of the construction license before 2020 is very important to qualify for feed-in tariffs in the country and to be able to sell production to the state company under the purchase agreements.
Ukraine will end its feed-in-tariff system for new renewable energy projects from 2020 onwards, and will adopt an auction-based system to allocate new capacities, which will be sold subject to market conditions
"In that regard, when we complete our 120 MW second plant in the Carpathian region, our investment volume in Ukraine will reach up to €180 million," Ozkok said.
The company has also completed the necessary paperwork for a third 70 MW wind plant, however, if they do not receive the construction license before 2020, the company may have to resort to bid for it, he said.
Solar plants in Ukraine are also an area that the company is focused on. Plans for two 10 MW and 19MW solar plans are afoot.
Ozkok added that Guris also has plans to invest in Belarus and Albania, for a 25 MW wind plant and a 30 MW wind plant, respectively.
Guris Holding made its first overseas investment in Kosovo for a 32.4 MW wind plant that began operations in October 2018.
By Nuran Erkul Kaya in Odessa, Ukraine
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr