What is the impact of the sudden strong earthquake in Turkey on the photovoltaic industry

A 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit southeastern Turkey near the Syrian border in the early morning of February 6, local time. The epicenter was located in Gaziantep Province, Turkey. Buildings collapsed on a large scale and tens of thousands of people were killed or injured. As of press time, there are still a series of aftershocks in the local area, and the scope of the earthquake's impact has expanded to the entire southeastern part of Turkey.

Turkey's photovoltaic manufacturing system industry was less affected by the earthquake, only affecting about 10% of module production capacity.

Turkey's photovoltaic manufacturing industry is widely distributed, mainly in the southwest and northwest. According to the statistics of EnergyTrend, a new energy research center of TrendForce, the nominal production capacity of local photovoltaic modules in Turkey has exceeded 5GW. Among them, CW Enerji and Smart Solar are the largest photovoltaic module manufacturers in Turkey, and their nominal production capacity is about 1GW respectively.  Due to its geographical location, most of the local module production capacity has not been affected by the strong earthquake. At present, only some small-capacity module factories in the earthquake area are affected. GTC (about 140MW), Gest Enerji (about 150MW), and Solarturk (about 250MW) account for about 10% of Turkey's total photovoltaic module production capacity. As the local area is still suffering from continuous strong aftershocks, the damage to the affected enterprises, their factories and production equipment is unknown, and the news of the resumption of work and production needs further follow-up reports.

According to the reports of local news media, the continuous strong earthquake has caused great damage to the buildings in the area. The seismic strength of rooftop photovoltaics mainly depends on the earthquake resistance of the building itself. The large-scale landslides of low- and medium-rise buildings in the local area have caused irreparable damage to some rooftop photovoltaic systems. Ground photovoltaic power stations are generally built in remote areas with flat ground, with few surrounding buildings, away from high-density buildings such as cities, and the construction standards are higher than those of rooftop photovoltaics, so they are less affected by earthquakes.

The quake also caused explosions in two separate sections of a gas pipeline in Hatay province. According to foreign media reports, Turkey's state-owned pipeline operator Botas has suspended the delivery of natural gas through the pipeline to Gaziantep, Hatay and Kahramanmaras provinces. In addition, the Ceyhan oil terminal in southern Turkey has also suspended operations due to its proximity to the quake zone. Energy transportation is blocked, and local power consumption is tightening. Photovoltaic ground power stations can be used as emergency power supplies in post-disaster rescue work to ensure the basic electricity needs of residents.