Zorlu Enerji Qualifies for Funding Under Horizon 2020 Programme

Zorlu Enerji, through its R&D investments, has transferred its accumulated knowledge to international collaborative projects, becoming Turkey's gateway to the outside world in the energy sector. Continuing its work with the aim of becoming a reference point in the sector, Zorlu Enerji has also attracted the attention of the European Union through R&D projects developed by engineers within its organization. Under the Horizon 2020 Programme, the EU's research and innovation program to be implemented between 2014 and 2020, Zorlu Enerji qualified to receive a total of EUR 3.5 million in funding through 6 separate projects.

Zorlu Enerji CEO Sinan Ak:

"We are proud to be a company globally recognized as a reference in the energy sector. The support provided by the EU is an indication that we are on the right track," he said. Ak added that they will continue to pursue their short, medium and long-term plans in line with their growth targets in renewable energy. Zorlu Enerji obtained 3 of the supports it received from the EU through projects it developed in the geothermal energy field. The first of these projects was GECO, which aimed at sustainable management of natural mineral resources. The project, in which only Zorlu Enerji and Middle East Technical University from Turkey participated and which is being carried out by a total of 18 institutions from countries including France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Iceland and Germany, aims to conduct international field applications for reducing emissions to zero by removing carbon dioxide and similar gases to ensure sustainability in geothermal fields.

The "GeoSmart Project," which includes energy storage studies and for which the Kızıldere 1 Geothermal Power Plant demo site was designated, is another project supported by the EU.

With this project, the aim is to store the necessary energy for electricity generation to continue in case of sudden outages and high electricity demand on the grid, and for electricity and heat production to maintain efficiency without interruption in sending electricity to the grid. GeoPro, a method previously applied only in the oil sector and adapted to geothermal, became the third project receiving EU support. Thanks to the method planned in the project, the properties of geothermal fluid will be monitored in real time through software and models from the reservoir through to the operation phase, thus integrating some of the time-consuming and conventional laboratory applications into technology, providing time savings and increased efficiency. The Flexigrid project on distribution networks for flexibility and retail market options will provide information about grid conditions using smart technologies and provide a transparent data management platform. The PlaMES project, which investigates technological developments for the planning of multi-energy systems, aims to be able to determine an optimized roadmap that meets carbon targets and renewable energy requirements at transmission and distribution levels through integrated planning to be developed. The BD4OPEM project was the final project receiving support in this area. With the BD4OPEM project, which enables tracking of big data for the open innovation energy market, the aim is to create the energy ecosystem of the future.