QAZAQ GREEN.  Kalyon Solar Technologies has secured TRY 1.6 billion ($85.1 million) of funding from the Turkish government to increase the capacity of its vertically integrated solar module manufacturing facility in Ankara, Turkey. It has also secured exemptions from customs tax and value-added tax, in addition to other fiscal sweeteners and employees, PV Magazine reports.

According to a document in the Turkish official journal, the company has secured a total of TRY 3.7 billion for its factory, including the new tranche. With the expansion plan, the ingot-to-module factory's annual solar module capacity will likely increase from 1 GW to 2 GW.

Kalyon inaugurated its manufacturing facility in August 2020. It is part of a wider project involving the construction of a 1 GW solar plant 260 km south of the Turkish capital, in Konya.

The project was tendered by the Turkish government in 2017. A consortium formed by Konya Solar and Hanhwa Q Cells was the winner, but the South Korea-based solar manufacturer walked away from the deal a few months later. Chinese state-owned conglomerate China Electronics Technology Group Corp. (CETC) replaced Hanhwa Q Cells as a new project partner in October 2019.

In October, another Turkish manufacturer, Smart Solar Technologies, secured TRY 7.62 billion of funding from the Turkish government to set up a 2 GW vertically integrated solar module manufacturing facility in Izmir, Turkey.