Tag: Zorlu

  • Turkey Excess Power Seen Delaying Projects as Zorlu Prefers Coal

    Turkey Excess Power Seen Delaying Projects as Zorlu Prefers Coal

    Excess electricity capacity threatens investment in Turkey’s power industry and is leading Zorlu Enerji (ZOREN) Elektrik Uretim AS to favor an investment in a more economical coal-fired plant, its chief executive said.

    Central bank policies aimed at slowing inflation and reducing the current-account deficit have sapped electricity demand and created a surplus as new plants are added to the national grid, Sinan Ak, Zorlu’s chief executive, said in an interview at an energy conference in Istanbul yesterday. The Istanbul-based company has interests in Turkey, Russia, Pakistan and Israel.

    Turkey’s electricity surplus was about 4,500 megawatts last year, or 7.8 percent of total capacity, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said at the same conference yesterday. That figure may double to as much as 10,000 megawatts this year, Ak said.

    “This is causing players in the energy industry to be cautious about making new investment decisions, especially on natural gas-fired power plants,” Ak said. Zorlu has postponed its plans to build a gas-fired plant in the country and will focus on a coal-fired plant instead, he said.

    The company will finalize an investment decision this year for a power plant to burn domestic lignite, or coal, with a maximum capacity of 1,000 megawatts, Ak said. That investment may cost more than $1 billion, he said, and Zorlu is in talks with Japanese and South Korean suppliers of generators and other equipment that can burn local lignite, he said.

    More Economical

    A coal power plant is more economical in an environment of excess capacity because unlike wind, solar or hydro plants, the coal plant produces energy only on demand, Ak said. It’s also less expensive to operate than a gas-fired plant, he said.

    Turkish electricity demand fell 2.4 percent to 60.5 billion kilowatt-hours in the first quarter over the previous quarter, according to data from the state power transmission company Teias’s website. The country had 57,800 megawatts of power capacity at the end of March, the data shows.

    Turkey’s gross domestic product probably expanded 2.4 percent in the first quarter, according to the median estimate of 27 economists surveyed by Bloomberg from April 19 to April 24. The economists reduced their forecast from 4.3 percent in the previous survey.

    “We expect the central bank’s expansionary monetary policy starting from April to speed up economic activity in coming quarters,” Turker Hamzaoglu, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London, said by e-mail today. He said the expansion in the first quarter was probably 3 percent. Warmer weather in the first quarter probably also helped to reduce power use, he said.

    Israel Plans

    Zorlu is the third-biggest of five electricity producers listed on the Istanbul Stock Exchange, with revenue of $291 million last year. Aksa Enerji, which is part-owned by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is the biggest with revenue of $1 billion. Zorlu shares have gained 39 percent this year.

    Zorlu has 770 megawatts of power capacity in Turkey, Russia and Pakistan and gas-fired power plant investments in Israel. It plans to increase capacity to 1,300 megawatts in two years by investing $1 billion, Ak said. The additions to capacity will include 250 megawatts in geothermal energy, 110 megawatts in wind and 150 megawatts in hydropower, he said.

    “We plan to have a serious capacity increase in Israel in solar, wind and gas-fired plants,” he said. The company has a 42 percent stake in three power projects in Israel, one with 800 megawatts capacity that will start operations this year and two others with a total of 175 megawatts of capacity that will be active from 2014, he said.

    Zorlu plans another 50-megawatt wind power plant in Pakistan after the first one starts operations in May, Ak said.

    via Turkey Excess Power Seen Delaying Projects as Zorlu Prefers Coal – Businessweek.

  • No Israel-Turkey gas deal without Erdogan OK

    No Israel-Turkey gas deal without Erdogan OK

    Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told the newspaper: We won’t operate a project with Israel without seeing that the conditions put by the prime minister are met.

    17 February 13 13:18, Globes’ correspondent

    Turkish daily “Hurriyet Daily News” quotes Energy Minister Taner Yıldız as saying that Turkey will not agree to an energy project with Israel without the approval of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, commenting on an Israeli offer to lay an undersea natural gas pipeline to Turkey for export to Europe. He told CNBC-e, “We can’t act like nothing ever happened. We won’t operate a project with Israel without seeing that the conditions put by the prime minister are met [first].”

    “Hurriyet” says, “Israel has offered to lay an undersea natural gas pipeline to Turkey’s south coast in order to sell energy to Europe. The Leviathan field, Israel’s biggest, contains an estimated 425 billion cubic meters of natural gas, and the field will produce enough gas to supply all of Israel’s needs for the coming years. As such, the country is looking to export the excess gas.”

    The paper quotes Taner as saying that Turkey’s main objective is to benefit from its geographical advantages and cooperate with its neighbors on energy, but Israel knows Turkey’s sore points, adding, “Unless the political conditions mature, beginning these kinds of projects is risky.”

    On Thursday, “Globes” reported that, in the past few weeks, the partners in the Leviathan gas field have received queries from some of Turkey’s biggest companies and Western multinationals operating in the country interested in buying natural gas from the reservoir.

    “Hurriyet” cites Israeli newspapers as suggesting that Turkey’s Zorlu Energy Group could become involved in the project. “The company said it has been an important energy player in Israel and has shares in several power plants in the country, adding that the idea of laying an undersea pipeline between the two countries had been broached several times in business meetings but official offer has been made. In Israel, Zorlu owns a 25% stake in Dorad Energy, which is developing a power plant in Ashkelon. It also has a 42% interest in cogeneration projects at the Ashdod and Ramat Negev plants.”

    Published by Globes [online], Israel business news – www.globes-online.com – on February 17, 2013

    © Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013

    via “Hurriyet”: No Israel-Turkey gas deal without Erdogan OK – Globes.

  • GE Increases Output of Wind Turbines in Turkey

    GE Increases Output of Wind Turbines in Turkey

    Zorlu Enerji Group has selected GE’s WindBOOST service technology to enhance the output of 31 GE 2.5MW wind turbines at the Gokcedag Wind Farm in Turkey. The increased power supply will help meet Turkey’s growing demand for energy from cleaner, renewable resources.

    GE recently installed its WindBOOST control software at the Gokcedag Wind Farm, located in the city of Osmaniye in the eastern Mediterranean region of Turkey. GE expects WindBOOST to increase the wind farm’s annual energy production up to 4%. WindBOOST is an ideal product for growing regions such as Turkey where increased development is creating energy demand in short time periods. GE made the announcement today at the EWEA trade conference in Vienna, Austria. Rotor Elektrik Uretim A.S., a subsidiary of Zorlu Enerji, owns the Gokcedag Wind Farm.

    WindBOOST makes it possible for GE 2.5 wind turbines to increase their power curve to 2.75MW. Depending on wind speed and other site atmospheric conditions, the WindBOOST control automatically activates to increase the energy produced by each unit. Alternatively, WindBOOST can be turned on and off remotely, providing flexibility to ramp up power production.

    “By upgrading GE 2.5MW wind turbines with WindBOOST software, Zorlu Enerji gets the benefit of increased energy production without additional equipment. The 31 wind turbines now operate at the same power curve as 2.75MW units, which is maximizing Zorlu Enerji’s return on investment,” says Andy Holt, general manager of wind services for GE’s renewable energy business. “Turkey has a target of reaching 20GW of renewable energy in 2023, and we are proud to help the region meet this goal.”

    WindBOOST is one of many software and controls technologies in GE’s suite of wind service offerings that increase annual energy production. GE is harnessing the power of the “Industrial Internet” and using software and analytics to make its machines smarter and more efficient. WindBOOST is one of many services technologies providing between 2% to 4% additional power to GE wind turbine owners. If only 1% more power were produced from GE’s fleet of more than 20,000 turbines, there would be more than 875GW hours of power on the grid.

    via GE Increases Output of Wind Turbines in Turkey – TES – Today’s Energy Solutions.

  • Nederlander to Open Theatre Center in Istanbul in 2013

    Nederlander to Open Theatre Center in Istanbul in 2013

    According to Variety, Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment has joined forces with Zorlu Property Group in Turkey to create an Istanbul-based performing arts center. Scheduled to open in 2013, the center will include both a 2,300 and 770-seat theatre.

    n 20746 4

    The Nederlander Organization, founded in 1912 by David T. Nederlander and based in Detroit, Michigan, is one of the largest operators of legitimate theatres and music venues in the United States.

    Its first acquisition was a lease on the Detroit Opera House in 1912. The building was demolished in 1928. It later operated the Shubert Lafayette Theatre until its demolition in 1964 and the Riviera Theatre, both in Detroit. Since then, the organization has grown to include nine Broadway theatres – making it the second-largest owner of Broadway theatres after The Shubert Organization – and a number of theaters across the United States, including its current Detroit base in the Fisher Building, plus three West End theatres in London, England.

    via Nederlander to Open Theatre Center in Istanbul in 2013.

  • Mixed-Use Zorlu Center Raises Stakes in Istanbul

    Mixed-Use Zorlu Center Raises Stakes in Istanbul

    By JON GORVETT

    Published: July 14, 2011

    15iht reistanbul articleLarge

    Zorlu Property

    A rendering of the Zorlu Center, a mixed-use extravaganza rising in Zincirlikuyu, on the city’s European shores.

    ISTANBUL — While Istanbul is often described as a city of contradictions — somehow growing both more Western and more Eastern, more open and more closed — only a few real estate projects have seized on these contrasts as the foundation of a development philosophy.

    One that has is the Zorlu Center, a mixed-use extravaganza rising in Zincirlikuyu, on the city’s European shores. This four-tower, five-function and two-theater project aims to provide the city’s most luxurious apartments as well as entertainment for people without a lira to spend.

    The Center, scheduled to open by the end of next year, also illustrates the continued dynamism of Istanbul’s high-end real estate market — and of Turkey’s robust economy, scarcely affected by the global downturn that has flattened its neighbor, Greece.

    The Center site, which totals 102,000 square meters, or almost 1.1 million square feet, was bought in 2007 for $800 million by Zorlu Property, part of the Zorlu Group, now one of the largest conglomerates in Turkey and in Europe. When the project is complete, Zorlu Property says, the company will have invested more than $2.5 billion. (In Turkey, top-end real estate generally is priced in U.S. dollars.)

    The residential units in the Center, which will vary from 117 square meters to 733 square meters, are selling at $9,500 to $18,000 per square meter, depending on the type of apartment and the view, although the developers think demand will push prices for the best units to $20,000 per square meter by the time the apartments are ready for occupancy at the end of 2012.

    If the prediction is accurate, that would put the Center’s top prices at the low end of the world’s most expensive residential range. Knight Frank real estate said that, for January 2011, luxury prices in Hong Kong were $30,677 per square meter; in London, $26,328; and in New York, $22,614.

    The development seems to be affecting surrounding areas, too. Data from Colliers International real estate brokers show that districts around the Center now command $7,500 to $10,000 per square meter in next-door Etiler and around $6,000 per square meter in nearby Levent.

    “Until recently, we’ve all been wondering how far up prices could go,” said Mehmet Even, an assistant general manager at Zorlu Property. “Istanbul has been basically a wealthy place for hundreds of years, although admittedly, the last century has been a bit quiet. Now, though, it’s definitely taking off again.”

    The project, so far advertised only by word of mouth and its towers’ growing outlines on the city skyline, has sold 30 percent of its residential units since pre-construction sales began in October 2010.

    Location, of course, is everything. Zincirlikuyu is a place where a jumble of highways from Asia and Europe intersect, before heading off again into the central business district, the upmarket residential region of Etiler and the older commercial and residential venues of Nisantasi, Taksim and Besiktas.

    “What we’re trying to do here is create a private place that is also very much a public part of Istanbul,” said Mehmet Emre Zorlu, a board member of Zorlu Property Group who, born in 1984, also is a good example of the growing number of youthful businesspeople in this ancient city.

    To achieve that goal, the architects Emre Arolat and Murat Tabanlioglu — the Turkish winners of an international competition for the design — have created a south-facing terrace overlooking the Bosporus, partly as a level surface for construction and partly as a public gathering area. On this terrace, “we have a hard shell that evolves into a soft and green hill,” Mr. Arolat said.

    Four towers rise from the terrace, including the residential development, a $175 million Raffles Hotel and spa, and around 22,000 square meters of office space. There also will be a shopping center, with parking and access roads created below ground level at a cost of $100 million.

    via Mixed-Use Zorlu Center Raises Stakes in Istanbul – NYTimes.com.