Petra Solar hosting a Turkish delegation in search of smart-grid solutions

A delegation of public and private electricity transmission and distribution representatives from Turkey will visit South Plainfield energy technology company Petra Solar this afternoon to examine the company's smart grid, grid reliability and renewable energy technologies.

"Right now, most of their fuel sources are imported. So they import gas and they import oil, and they are looking, like many countries around the world, to reduce reliance on imported fuels for energy," said Mary Grikas, vice president of communications at Petra.

Turkey has projected it will invest $130 billion by 2023 to meet its energy demands.

The delegation of approximately 25 representatives of Turkey's electric industry will review Petra's technology, designed to mitigate issues related to the uneven flows of energy from solar and other alternate sources, and its other products and technologies. Petra also makes utility pole-mounted solar panel systems equipped with smart-grid communication technology.

In addition to producing energy, Turkish representatives also are interested in ways of distributing electricity produced by solar energy sources, Grikas said.

"They have precious farmland, and they actually limit solar farms in Turkey because they don't want to use that farmland for solar farms," Grikas said.

The company already is working on a project in Jordan, installing solar systems on 20,000 rooftops and implementing its communication technology designed to regulate the flow of electricity, Grikas said. Petra also has been working on a rooftop project in Australia.

The visit is part of a "reverse trade mission" sponsored by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. The delegation is traveling from Washington to New York, with a stop in New Jersey.