• Client: Kalyon Holding

• Location: Başkent OIZ, Ankara – Türkiye

• Scope: 2 GW Vertically-integrated ingot to module module manufacturing facility with on-site R&D centre

• Annual Capacity: 1 GW (2021) – expansion  to 2.2 GW (2024)

• Investment: ≈ USD 400 million inside a USD 1.4 billion YEKA package 

• Milestones: Ground-break 2017 · First module August 2020 · 1 GW upgrade June 2021 · 2 GW upgrade 2024 · Stock Exchange February 2025

President of the Republic of Türkiye - Kalyon PV Opening Ceremony

Turkey’s first gigafactory began with the government’s 2017 YEKA-GES-1 tender, which Kalyon Enerji (then partnered with Hanwha Q Cells) won after offering USD 0.0699 per kWh for a 1 GW solar park in Konya, on the condition that they also build a vertically-integrated PV module plant.

Ground was broken in December 2017 at Başkent OSB, Ankara, in a ceremony led by Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım. The mandate was ambitious: bring polysilicon-to-module production online within 21 months and localise critical know-how for Turkey’s emerging PV supply chain. 

Backed by a USD 400 million factory budget inside a USD 1.4 billion YEKA package, Kalyon and its Chinese equipment partners completed construction despite pandemic headwinds. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan inaugurated the plant on 19 August 2020, hailing it as “Turkey's first integrated solar module factory” 

The complex ramped from an initial 500 MW line to 1 GW by mid-2021, exporting 76 % local-content panels for the 1 GW Karapınar mega-park and other projects. A dedicated R&D centre and Solar Academy now drive cell-efficiency improvements—recent runs exceed 22 %—and train more than 140 Turkish engineers and operators each year.

RCT Solutions served as the project’s independent engineering partner: delivering the bankable DPR, full process & utility design, vendor tendering, FAT/SAT audits and on-site ramp-up support. Thanks to this framework, the factory achieved 98 % first-pass SAT acceptance and reached nameplate yield just 28 days after start-up—setting a new benchmark for integrated PV manufacturing outside China.

RCT Solutions entered the Kalyon PV project as the independent “owner’s engineer,” turning a bold government mandate into a fully bankable, vertically-integrated gigafactory. From the initial feasibility study and Detailed Project Report that unlocked state incentives, through 3-D plant design, vendor tendering, FAT/SAT audits, and on-site ramp-up support, RCT’s German-led team de-risked every phase—ultimately delivering Turkey’s first ingot-to-module line on time and at target yield.

• 1 400 skilled factory jobs created in Phase 1, plus 100 scientists in the on-site R&D centre.

• 22 %+ cell efficiency achieved with mono-PERC half-cell technology.

• 15 months from concept sign-off to first module—despite Covid-19 restrictions (beating baseline schedule by ~10 %).

• 98 % first-pass SAT acceptance across 300+ tools, verified by RCT QA audits.

• ≈1.3 million t CO₂ avoided each year once the factory’s 1 GW output is installed, based on IEA benchmarks for PV displacement of fossil power.

• 75 % local-content share for modules supplied to Turkey’s 1 GW Karapınar mega-park.