The wind farm, distributed over a large mountainous terrain, extends over a land area of 123 km2 (47 sq mi).[1] The wind farm was constructed and is operated by Polat Energy, a joint venture company of Polat Holding, which is owned by former Galatasaray S.K. president Adnan Polat, and the French company EDF Energies Nouvelles.[1][2]
Technical details
Soma Wind Farm was built in two phases, called Soma-1 and Soma-2. Average total annual energy generated is 405 GWh. The cost of the project totalled to €170 million.[1] It was completed and commissioned in January 2012.[3]
The first phase, consisting of 88 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of 79.2 MW manufactured by Enercon, cost €100 million, and was commissioned in December 2010. Each of the E-44 type turbines with 44 m (144 ft) rotor diameter at 55 m (180 ft) hub height generates 900 KW power. 50 of the wind turbines are atop of steel towers while the rest were installed on precast concrete towers.[4][5]
In the second phase, 31 wind turbines were erected, one of E-44 type and 30 of E-70 type, which having a rotor diameter of 71 m (233 ft) at 65 m (213 ft) hub height generate each 2.3 MW. The second phase extended the wind farm's power capacity about 60.9 MW.[4][6]
The area has extreme winter conditions that cause icing of the rotor blades. To prevent this, some turbines are equipped with de-icing system.[4]
Soma Wind Farm is Turkey's only wind power plant feeding electricity into grid at 380 kV.[7]
