Our Projects

DoDomates Greenhouse

DoDomates, our greenhouse company, is fully-owned by Buhar Enerji and its employees. For us, "DoDomates" means Do Domates! (Do Tomatoes!) We want to be the market leader in selling the best tasting tomato product in Turkey, and later expanding to neighboring countries such as in the Middle East and Russia. Turkey and Russia arguably have the most expensive premium tomato and other vegetable prices in Europe. 

Our facility will be a state of the art facility, operated by an international grower-partner, and will produce some 5,000 tons of top quality tomatoes per year in the first full year of production. Expansion plans would take this to 25,000 tons on 50 hectares. 

We chose our location due to its special properties as a greenhouse location: 

• The geothermal reservoir has water hot enough (60-65°) and with a high enough flow rate to be the sole source of heat energy needed
• The weather conditions allow 12-month cultivation, unique compared to the vast majority of competition in Turkey, who suffer excessive heat and humidity
• Great communication to ports and major cities
• Big local development impact in a poorer district of Turkey

Top quality will be defined by “us” as a partnership – the international grower-partner, DoDomates, and the food retailer. We aim to build seed-to-store confidence between “us” with constant dialogue and input. Food safety, taste and sustainability are our ethos. Global and domestic food markets continue to be challenged and demand greater security. Our growing practices will be a step ahead to exceed official standards and lead the market through innovation and dialogue with stakeholders. 

DoDomates Greenhouse Facility will possess a very high score for sustainability. Modern greenhouse cultivation implies substantially lower water and fertilizer use than conventional agriculture, and pesticide use will also be at a minimum due to Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

Preperations for the Project have been started this May. Most of the agreements have been made and field work has been begun. We are planning to finish all the work and make it run before the next summer.

Combined Heat & Power

Combined heat and power is a type of power plant (CHP). Technically, this is a type of cogeneration facility, in which a single cycle of electricity is generated and the heat that is produced goes into a secondary use, such as greenhouse heating. Some competitors in Turkey, in fact, are de facto operating on CHP-type systems, whereby power plants are providing electricity to manufacturing operations and derivative heat is being given to adjacent greenhouse projects. CHP is ubiquitously used in the Dutch greenhouse industry, where flower and vegetable producers top up sales margins for their traditional products with sales of (subsidized) electricity. In Turkey, no such electricity sales will be subsidized, but clearly, with the additional benefits of the heat and the CO₂ for fertilization, CHP will likely become increasingly popular for greenhouse producers, especially given the outlook for Turkish electricity prices.

Solar Energy

We have been preparing for the Government to finalize its national strategy for solar energy for some time now. Beginning in 2007, we began a process of site identification, regulatory understanding and establishment of local and international strategic partnerships. In December 2010, the Renewables Law was modified to facilitate solar power plants and in June 2011 regulations were approved to support the Law. We now expect that applications for licenses may be accepted by the Government as soon as the fourth quarter of this year for the 600MW the Government intends to make available. 

Whether for PV or CSP, our sites are well-located, unobstructed, large tracts of land, flat (especially important for CSP), close to grid connections, and with high DNIs.

We are prepared to make our applications as we see the future of solar energy in Turkey as bright as the summer sun in Datca.

Other Projects

Operational Geothermal License and Hybrid Power - Izmir, Aliaga

Buhar Enerji was awarded an operational geothermal license on the very end of the Aliaga Peninsula for 30 years in 2009. The development area covers 1,642 hectares, and inclues some of the industrial areas of the peninsula. The existing operating well is located at the very tip of the coast, and has a water temperature of 62 °C, very suitable for district heating. Substantial water leakage into the sea, as well as higher water temperatures and higher water pressures in adjacent reservoirs inland seem to indicate that drilling a new well would lead to a large improvement in the exploitation of the geothermal resources of this site. Additionally, we believe Aliaga can be developed for solar energy.

Geothermal Exploration Licenses - Canakkale

In Canakkale, Buhar Enerji was awarded two exploratory licenses approximately ten kilometers from a geothermal power plant in Tuzla, which has a 174 °C well, one of the hottest geothermal sources of Turkey. Buhar Enerji is presently undertaking preliminary studies of these areas for Greenfield power and heating projects.