Turkish Daily News

June, 2010

Özen Özer, a former housewife and part of the new breed of female entrepreneurs in Turkey, has set up “Korona,” a company that produces solar energy systems. The company, which Özer set up with her husband, Tahir Özer, aims to bring electricity to remote villages which still cannot use electric power. The firm has brought electricity to 20 households in villages so far while the entrepreneur now aims to establish a “mobile power station.”

“We decided to do this two years ago,” Özer told the business daily Referans. “My husband had applied to be a mayor candidate for the [governing Justice and Development Party] AKP for the Adana Metropolitan Municipality. As an election promise, he developed this project of producing electricity from the sun for remote villages.”

Özer, however, was not selected as a candidate by the AKP. Afterwards, the duo consequently established Korona and began producing solutions for villages. The company has worked in more than 30 projects on irrigation systems, night guard spots and residences. The company produces systems that have a life span of 15-20 years, they said.

“We have brought electricity to 20 homes with our solutions,” said the female entrepreneur. “In essence, we are setting up a solar power plant that has a power of between 1 and 1.5 kW. With attached batteries, the basic needs of a residence, such as the refrigerator, TV set, washing machine and lighting, are solved. The system costs around 10,000 Turkish Liras.”

But the system necessitates energy-saving devices, such as a small-screen TV set or A-class washing machine. If light bulbs are also energy-friendly, the system can meet the needs of a household of five people.

For such a basic system, the company uses roughly 10 solar panels of between 120 and 180 kW. The panels are installed on the roof or to places where the sunshine is not blocked. “We may deliver electricity to many remote villages, or even plains, with this system,” Özer said.

One step further

The company’s latest idea is to build a mobile solar energy station, she said. “We will attach this system to a tractor. During the day, a villager can use this to operate a water pump. Then he will take the tractor home and continue to use electricity in his house.”

If the system lives up to the couple’s expectations, the company may even start exporting to the Middle East and North African countries.

The company’s vehicle also utilizes the same system. “We have a refrigerator and a TV set in the vehicle. We make our own tea in the car, too. We even power up the drill with this system,” she said.

Özer said she thinks Turkey has a “twisted” attitude toward solar energy. “I’ve been to countries such as the United States, China and Korea. I saw that solar energy is used by the richest sections of the society. In Turkey, it is just the opposite. People are orienting toward solar energy not as a conscious decision, but because they’ve got no other choice.”

She said there was no electricity even in central Adana districts like Kozan. “Parliament should put the emphasis on solar energy in the draft Renewable Energy Act. Our country is solar-rich.”

If the government supports solar energy, similar systems could easily be set up in other provinces, she said. “Our latest project was in the Dogantepe village of Sanliurfa, in the southeast. People there were still using kerosene lamps for lighting. We succeeded in a few homes first and then the whole village started placing orders.”