70 percent grant support to be provided to 25 producers for solar energy investments next year

Within the scope of the Rural Disadvantaged Areas Development Project (KDAKP) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 70 percent grant support will be provided to 25 producers for solar energy investments next year.

Adana Provincial Director of Agriculture and Forestry Mehmet Nuri Kökçüoğlu told an AA reporter that the sun is among the most easily accessible renewable energy sources in Turkey.

Stating that the use of solar energy in agricultural irrigation reduces producer expenses, Kökçüoğlu noted that the ministry has long been providing grant support for investments that will generate electricity using the photovoltaic (generating electricity from the sun) method based on this.

Kökçüoğlu said that to date in Adana, 50 percent grant support has been provided to 8 producers for photovoltaic investments, and solar energy has been utilized for irrigation in an area of 477 decares.

"WE WILL PROVIDE 70 PERCENT GRANT SUPPORT FOR INVESTMENTS"

Emphasizing that they have developed new projects to further expand the use of the photovoltaic method in agriculture in the city, which receives intense sunlight, Kökçüoğlu spoke as follows:

"With the project we have prepared, we will provide 70 percent grant support next year to 25 producers for their investments that enable electricity generation via the photovoltaic method to be used in irrigation. Our producers will be able to use this system both in a fixed location and transport it to their fields and orchards. We will ensure that our farmers and producers in our province can send products with low economic costs to the market using renewable energy without polluting the environment, their orchards, or their fields, and without dealing with fossil fuels. With the increase in producers implementing this practice, we will be offering more economical products to the market."

Kökçüoğlu said that apart from ministry grants, farmers are also making investments with their own resources, turning the sunlight, which sometimes becomes bothersome in Adana, into something productive.

INVESTMENT PAID FOR ITSELF IN 3.5 YEARS

Producer Abdulkadir İmen in the Karaisalı district explained that in 2017, with 50 percent grant support from the ministry, he established a 120-decare fruit orchard containing a photovoltaic system in a region without grid electricity.

Stating that he has been benefiting from solar energy for the irrigation of his orchard for many years, İmen noted the following:

"It paid for its establishment cost approximately 3.5 years after we set it up. The facility you see now will produce free electricity for us for a lifetime. There is no operating cost or depreciation expense. Cleaning the panel surfaces during the year is the only work we will do; the system has no other depreciation expenses."

News Source: 12punto