Under the terms of the agreement, EGP will establish a new research and exploration company in Turkey in partnership with Meteor, a company that is 70 percent owned by Uzun and 30 percent by Turkish geothermal consultancy group G-Energy.
The new company will use its 142 exploration licenses to carry out surface and deep exploration activities in the western half of the country with the aim of finding geothermal resources suitable for the generation of electricity and heat.
The licenses were acquired under a law which allows private parties to invest in research for geothermal resources with a view to exploiting them for electricity, heating and in agriculture.
Enel Green Power, a world leader in the geothermal industry, will finance the initial surface exploration; later Meteor will participate in Enel Green Power's investments in both surface and deep exploration on a pro-rata basis.
To date, installed geothermal capacity in Turkey totals 86 MW. The government's five-year plan through 2015 envisages the development of an additional 600 MW of installed capacity for electricity generation.
With the introduction of the law of 29 December 2010 governing the system of incentives for the production of electricity from renewable resources, the Turkish legislative and regulatory framework provides for a 10 year-incentive that varies depending on the energy resource involved, complemented by a further incentive for the first 5 years if the equipment used is manufactured in Turkey.
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