Doguhan Enerji was launched in 1996. Since then, the company has built renewable power plants with a capacity of over 2500 MW, including Turkey’s first wind farm. It also provides consulting services for the national grids in Turkey and the Middle East and North Africa region. In 2022, the company established its subsidiary Helios Energy to provide services to the European renewables market. Batuhan Ildas is Managing Partner at Doguhan Enerji.
Mr. Ildas, can you tell us about the company’s core operations in Turkey and abroad?
Doguhan Enerji is one of the well-known companies in Turkey’s renewable energy sector. Experience, quality and early delivery of construction with our skilled employees are our strongest traits. Our ability to meet the demands and solve the problems of our customers stand out as the most important factors for them to choose us. We provide civil and electrical works services for all types of power plants, mostly wind farms and solar power plants, including construction and commissioning. Access roads leading to the site and the transportation of blades are one of the biggest challenges in wind farm construction but our team has the experience to resolve these issues in a cost-effective manner thanks to our crane platforms and reinforced concrete foundations for the turbines.
We are now expanding and using our experience in Europe, starting in 2022 with Romania’s biggest solar park to date. It is the beginning of a new era for us and we are glad we were able to complete our first contract on time. In 2023, we plan to enter other European countries with the construction of both wind and solar power plants.
Can you walk us through a recent successful project that Doguhan has completed?
We have many large projects completed successfully in Turkey. The most important in recent years include the 310-MW Soma wind park, the Karaburun wind park with a capacity of 268 MW and the 112-MW Goktepe wind park. We provided construction services for all of these projects, including access and transportation roads to the site, crane platforms, reinforced concrete foundations, underground cables and substations. The most recent of these projects, Goktepe, was finished in eight months. It included 27 turbine foundations and access roads with a total length of 32 kilometres. The project was completed in record time and under extraordinary weather conditions. It is now operational and providing clean energy to more than 150,000 households.
You work closely with local communities in stakeholders in Turkey. What is your approach in that regard?
We love nature and our aim is to serve clean energy for humanity. If you tell your stakeholders that your goal is to do a good job for humanity, everyone will help you. Based on this understanding, your business will be much easier to run. Working with locals in the regions where we operate and employing them also gives these people the opportunity to contribute to their surroundings. Thus, we are beneficial to both the environment and the people.
You recently established a European subsidiary and already have projects in Romania. Are there any other expansion projects in the works?
Yes, in 2022 we successfully finished a solar power plant in Romania. This is the largest facility of this kind in the country. Shortly after the finalisation of this project, we signed two more contracts for projects in north and west Romania which will be completed in the last quarter of 2023. We also have an ongoing underground cable line project in Germany.
Undoubtedly, 2022 was a milestone for many countries when it comes to reducing their dependency on foreign energy. We believe that the green energy evolution will happen day by day and we are proud to be at the centre of it all. We have been invited to carry out the construction of numerous valuable projects in different countries but for us it is important to establish a sustainable organisation and have controlled sites in place. That is why we are trying to be selective in the European energy sector. However, we will definitely expand our operations to other European countries in the coming months.