Şişecam, one of the strongest global players in the glass and chemicals industries, announced its decision to increase its frosted glass furnace investment capacity in Mersin (Turkey), from 180,000 tonnes to 244,000 tonnes per year. The company will also increase its yearly capacity of energy glass processing line from 20 million sq m to 26.6 m sq m.

Şişecam’s Chairman and Executive Member of the Board Dr Ahmet Kırman said the move will increase the total investment amount of two projects to 228 million Euros ($247.78 million). “While the cost of energy increases, the decrease in the costs of generating electricity from solar energy and the sustainability focus in the global arena offer new opportunities in the frosted glass and energy glass industries. With this strategic move Şişecam’s installed frosted glass production capacity will reach 324,000 tonnes per year by the end of 2024,” Dr Kirman said.

Dr Kırman stated that the global solar energy sector, which was 40 GW in 2010, reached 710 GW in 2020 and added: “With the contribution of the trends supporting the sector, the global solar energy installed power is expected to increase fourfold by 2030 and exceed 3,000 GW. USA, which currently provides 3 per cent of its energy needs from solar energy, aims to increase this rate to 40 per cent by 2030 and to 45 per cent by 2050. This transformation also accelerates the initiatives of industrial players to transform their energy consumption into green energy sources and to limit their carbon footprints. More and more companies are putting renewable energy investments on their agenda. We believe that this investment will support the development of the rapidly growing solar energy sector in Turkey.”