Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank, pointing out the importance of producing the inverter used in solar panels in Turkiye, said, “It is important for our country’s economy that the inverter is produced in Turkiye with domestic means and is currently being sold on the market.”
Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank visited Kolarc Makine’s factory in Ankara Chamber of Industry 2nd OSB. During the visit, the company’s General Manager Ilker Olucak informed Minister Varank about the activities they carry out. A presentation on the company’s solutions for digitalization was also made to Varank, who made inspections at the production facilities.
Varank, in his evaluation after the review, said:
“This company started its business life by making inverter welding machines, and we are a company that both sells and exports to Turkiye with the Kolarc brand. Since power electronics are used in many different areas in the sector, they started to take their steps to make inverters of solar panels. We are visiting a company that makes very serious production in the field of power electronics. Welding machines form the basis of the industry. The fact that these machines work in close cooperation with robots and industrial automation makes a significant contribution to the production processes.”
Stating that the company started with 25-30 kilowatts and now sells 100-kilowatt solar panel inverters to the market and is ready to offer 167-kilowatt inverters to the market, Varank emphasized that the whole world is trying to reduce its carbon footprint, and the way to do this is to invest more in renewable energy.
“Our goal is to cut imports”
Pointing out that Turkiye is in an ideal sun-drenched location in the world, Varank said:
“Currently, solar power plants, solar panels on roofs, solar applications in agriculture are widely used all over Turkiye. The complement of these solar panels is actually inverters. Without these devices, you have no chance to convert the energy from the solar panels you have obtained into electricity and send it to the system. Currently, we do not have any other domestic production company in Turkiye. It is an industry with an import of over $100 million. In this sense, I especially wanted to visit our friends. It is important for our country’s economy that the inverter is produced in Turkiye with domestic facilities and that it is currently being sold in the market. Of course, we don’t want to settle for one brand either. Our goal is to cut imports, which are currently over $100 million. As the number of renewable energy projects and solar panels increases, inverter investments will increase in Turkiye.”
Noting that for the first time in Turkiye, the domestic and national inverter was produced by almost reversing the technology of a welding machine, Varank pointed out that it is very valuable for the country’s industry, “They want to be an R&D center themselves. They have applied. In this sense, we will provide the necessary support to make this place an R&D center in the field of power electronics.”
Automation solutions from Turkish engineers
Varank stated that the company also carries out studies on the cooperation, communication and automation of robots and inverter welding machines, and continued as follows:
“This automation will also contribute to the digitalization process. We have always tried to copy the models of certain countries to ourselves. Here is industry 4.0. It is actually a brand of Germany, but when we say digitalization, today our companies can produce high-tech products in electronics themselves. Here, our engineers can develop solutions related to their digitalization and automation. We need to see where the Turkish industry is going and accordingly, if our SMEs are going to be digitalized, if we are going to make the industry more efficient by digitalizing, we need to apply such domestic solutions to the industry. In this sense, these works of our company are also very valuable.”
Minister Varank then called the authorities of the businesses using Kolarc products and asked their opinions on the product. One of the business owners told Minister Varank, “I really struggled for these machines. It was always coming from outside. We bought both the cheapest and the best, the highest quality. We are very pleased. In the past, our money was going abroad, now how beautiful it is national and local.”
“Let’s trust human resources”
Kolarc General Manager Ilker Olucak emphasized that they set out to realize the firsts in the field of power electronics in Turkiye and shared the following information:
“We are currently the first company in its field in Turkiye with more than 40 engineers and 200 employees. There are examples in the sector that produce welding machines and inverters at the same time. We know the targets and figures they have achieved in the world. We have accepted these international goals as our own. We are taking all the steps quickly to represent our country in the best possible way.”
After Minister Varank said, “The opposition has a discourse, they say, ‘There is no production in Turkiye, there is no factory.’ What do you think of this?” Upon this question, General Manager Olucak gave the following answer: “We don’t have a problem with our self-confidence. Everyone needs to trust our human resources, too. When we believe, we put our efforts, and we work right, there is nothing we cannot achieve.”
30% of production is going towards exports
Founded by Kologlu Holding, Kolarc Makine and Solarkol Energy produce welding machines and solar inverter systems at international standards. Located in Ankara Chamber of Industry 2nd Organized Industrial Zone, Kolarc Makine carries out R&D, design and production with 100% domestic capital and human resources. The company, which has 200 employees, mostly women, exports 30% of its production. The company aims to triple the $6 million export figure it achieved last year this year.
Inverters that convert direct current to alternating current are mainly used in solar energy systems.
Solar energy is given to the system by converting it into electricity through inverters and making it suitable for the grid.
Source: Trthaber / Translated by Irem Yildiz