Akkuyu receives $3 billion investment despite licence delay

• 9 years ago (2015-09-30)

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The plant will have an installed generating capacity of 4800 MW from four units, as laid out in an intergovernmental agreement between Turkey and Russia. Under the agreement signed in May 2010, a subsidiary of Rostom – the Akkuyu NGS Elektrik Uretim Corporation – will build, own and operate the plant.

Akkuyu NGS CEO, Fuat Akhundov, said: “We have invested $3 billion in the project so far. Our production licence has not been issued yet, but we’ll continue to make our investments as we have confidence in Turkey and its economy.”

According to the project schedule, the construction licence is supposed to be issued by the end of 2015 and the first phase of construction – the first unit – would start by January 2016.

While power generation is scheduled to begin in 2019, a recent Reuters report has noted that this is likely to be moved to 2022 due to delays. Two law changes still need to be passed in parliament before the project can start generating.

In spite of the delays, the project’s financing is secure until 2017 as another tranche of Russian funds was released in January.