Wasabi Energy establishes subsidiary Imparator Enerji in Turkey
Kalina Cycle animation, Wasabi Energy website (source: Wasabi Energy)
Alexander Richter
20 Sep 2011
Wasabi Energy establishes Turkish subsidiary Imparator Enerji to take advantages of opportunities in Turkey's power generating sector with its Kalina cycle power generation technology.
In an announcement to the London Stock Exchange, Wasabi Energy (LON:WAS, ASX:WAS) reports it “has established a Turkish subsidiary named Imparator Enerji to take advantage of “enormous opportunities” in Turkey’s power generation sector.
As the licensee for Wasabi’s Kalina Cycle power generation technology in Turkey, Imparator Enerji will apply this technology to create greater value from traditionally low temperature heat sources, particularly in the geothermal and industrial energy efficiency sectors.
Wasabi noted that while Turkey is a major energy corridor delivering oil and gas from the East to major European markets, its own indigenous sources of coal, gas and oil are relatively small.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s energy demand is on the rise as its economy, currently the 16th largest in the world, is among the fastest growing in the world with GDP growth having reached 8.9 percent last year.
According to its own forecasts, Turkey will need an additional 30,000 megawatts of power generation capacity by 2020. In order to meet its rapidly growing energy demand, Turkey is set to invest US$100 billion in power generation, transmission and distribution sectors in the next nine years.
Turkey holds the most significant geothermal resources in Europe with estimates of power generation capacity ranging from 2,000 – 4,500 MW and has around 100 MW of operating geothermal capacity.
However, the recently announced geothermal tariff of US$0.105/kWh has stimulated the industry with more than 100 MW of power plant contracts being awarded in the year to date.
Wasabi Energy said that many of the markets it is targeting in Turkey including cement steel and petrochemicals are all major industries in Turkey and provide immediate opportunities for Imparator Enerji.
According to Wasabi, preliminary evaluations and thermodynamic modelling conducted by Imparator Enerji have confirmed Kalina Cycle’s performance advantages over alternative technologies available in the Turkish market.
Imparator Enerji has already held commercial negotiations with a number of large energy focused companies in Turkey interested in evaluating and potentially adopting the Kalina Cycle. The company is also evaluating a number of geothermal projects which may result in the co-development of Kalina Cycle power plants in Turkey.
“The establishment of Imparator Enerji…represents our first major foray into the utility scale power generation sector as an owner and technology provider,” said executive chairman of Wasabi Energy John Byrne.
“We see similar opportunities to develop Kalina Cycle project development companies in other key markets, particularly in Central Asia, North America and South Africa.”
Source: Proactive Investors, full release via Power Engineering
