The plant – to be completed in 2013 – will be located in the Corum province, northeast of the Turkish capital Ankara. It will utilise a part of Turkey’s longest river, the Kizilirmak, which runs into the Black Sea. Investment in the project is expected to amount to approximately EUR 250M.
“Constructing the Kargi hydropower plant is an exciting investment. It gives Statkraft a firm foothold in Turkey, a market with high economic growth, increasing energy needs and a major hydropower potential. Kargi is a profitable project which will provide Turkey and Europe with more clean energy. It will also create jobs and local development,” said Øistein Andresen, Executive Vice President in charge of International Hydropower in Statkraft.
The Turkish energy market is growing faster than any other market in Europe. Annually about 200TWh of electricity is consumed in Turkey, but it is expected that this will rise to approximately 400TWh by 2020. Population growth and increased per capita consumption are the main drivers behind the increase. At present nearly 20%of power generation is based on hydropower, and there is a great potential for developing more hydropower in Turkey.
Kargi is the second largest of five projects in the Turkish portfolio acquired by Statkraft in June 2009. Statkraft’s first power plant in the country, the 20MW Cakit plant, commenced commercial operation in June 2010 and was officially opened by Turkey’s Minister of Energy Taner Yildiz in October. If all the projects are constructed, the plants will have a total installed capacity of around 550MW and an average annual generation of approximately 1800 GWh
