The Turkish International Renewable Energy Congress (www.greenpowerconferences.com/TIREC ), the leading Turkish renewables conference, yesterday announced the winners of the esteemed Turkish International Renewable Energy Awards.

The Turkish International Renewable Energy Congress (www.greenpowerconferences.com/TIREC ), the leading Turkish renewables conference, yesterday announced the winners of the esteemed Turkish International Renewable Energy Awards.

Following an overwhelming number of nominations, the panel of independent judges announced four awards for this year at the prestigious awards ceremony held at the Barceló Eresin Topkapi Hotel in Istanbul. The winners for 2012 are:

Best Turkish Project

Antalya Metropolitan Municipality
The Solarcity Green Antalya Project is a long-term initiative that for the first time in Turkey will create a Municipality respectful to climate, cultural and natural heritage and a sustainable and livable city.
All local stakeholders are involved in embedding sustainability measures into their infrastructure- utilising solar PV on public works including street lights and office buildings. There is also a training facility that passes the experience of the project onto experts as well as raising awareness amongst the public.
Most Innovative Renewable Energy Company

Ormat

Ormat has over four decades of experience in the development of state-of-the-art, environmentally sound geothermal power solutions, primarily in geothermal energy and recovered energy generation. Ormat is today's only vertically-integrated geothermal power company. Founded and still managed by pioneers in the geothermal power generation field, Ormat today employs over 1000 people worldwide.


Best Renewable Energy Collaboration

Soma Wind Farm by Polat Energy/EDF Using Enercon Turbines

With a capacity of 79.2MW, the Soma Wind Farm is one of the four largest wind farms in service in the country. Located in the northern Aegean region in the Manisa and Balıkesir province, the facility was built by Istanbul-based Polat Enerji, in which EDF owns a 50 per cent interest. The completion of this project continues the company's expansion into Europe. The total capacity commission by EDF Energies in Turkey alone to 128.2MW gross and 51.8MW net.

Green Energy Leadership Award

Ates Ugurel

Mr Ates Ugurel is the founder of iRES Energy, the exclusive partner of PhoenixSolar in Turkey and neighbouring countries. iRES Enerji aims to be active both in large solar power plants and commercial rooftops, as well as implementing social responsibility projects based on renewable energy and ecological architecture. iRES Enerji built the first solarhouse in Antalya and published the first solar guide in Turkey.

Ates is also co-founder of Turkey's most popular and oldest renewable energy channel, alternatifenerji.com and in 2009, founded the solar networking platform SolarBaba. SolaBaba now informs over 40,000 people both from Turkey and the rest of the world about the various aspects of solar energy in facebook, linkedin, twitter and google plus.


Held alongside the Turkish International Renewable Energy Congress (TIREC), these awards celebrate the Projects and Breakthroughs Leading the Next Stage of Turksih Renewables.

"These four award winners have helped advance technology in the industry and are setting records and inspiring the industry. We can all learn from their leadership and excellence," said Nadim Chaudry, CEO of Green Power Conferences, the organiser of TIREC

The congress, now in its 4th year, brings together 550 renewable energy experts to discuss how to drive forward this promising market. For more information, please see www.greenpowerconferences.com/TIREC