Isra-Mart srl:Enel Green Power heats up Turkey

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Isra-Mart srl news:

Renewable energy company Enel Green Power announced this week that it has reached an agreement with Turkish group Uzun to develop geothermal plants in Turkey.

The firms will set up a joint venture called Meteor that will hold 142 licenses to explore geothermal resources in the west of the country.

The licenses were acquired by Meteor under a law that allows private parties to invest in research for geothermal resources with a view to exploiting them for electricity, heating and agriculture.

Enel Green Power will finance the initial surface exploration with a view to identifying the areas most suitable for the development of geothermal projects.

Meteor will then participate in Enel Green Power's investments in both surface and deep exploration on a pro-rata basis.

Individual companies will subsequently be formed to develop each particular geothermal project.

Installed geothermal capacity in Turkey stands at 86MW and the current government intends to develop an additional 600MW by 2015.

Turkey introduced long-term financial incentives for renewables projects last year, with extra bonuses if the equipment used is made in Turkey. Enel Green Power hopes to take advantage of the scheme.

The firm, which started trading last November after one of Europe's biggest initial public offerings of the year, has more than 600 renewable energy plants in 16 countries - around 13 per cent of which is geothermal capacity.

The group aims to add 3.5GW of new capacity by 2014.

The firm has 32 geothermal plants in Italy generating 730MW, as well as a 65MW binary cycle plant in Nevada, and at Stillwater and Salt Wells in the US.

These schemes received more than $60m in incentives under the Obama administration stimulus programme.