GTC Dış Ticaret Ltd. was established in 1993 in Istanbul by a female entrepreneur with a female main partner. The company has exported textile and ready-to-wear products from Turkey to Sears Roebuck & Sons and KMart Corporation in the USA from 1993 to 2017 in an uninterrupted manner, and then moved its registered office to Adıyaman and established a textile dyehouse in 2004. Searching for a new industry to operate as of 2010, the company decided to enter the solar power market in 2012, and thus created a multi-purpose, flexible and R&D compliant manufacturing line of solar panels in 2013 in Adıyaman. Having employed newly graduated engineers, trained them in the field of solar panels and, directed them to work for R&D efforts between 2013 and 2016, the company has completed 2 Tubitak projects in 3 years and, accordingly designed and manufactured bifacial and double glass solar panels with a high degree of seasonal and mechanical resistance, for which the testing and certification processes have been successfully completed making use of technologies intended as to minimize the wastage during production. It was entitled to a Utility Model in 2016 with its solar panel output. It is registered by the Ministry of Industry as an R&D Center.

Having put up for sale and started the mass-production of the high efficiency solar panels capable of undergoing the tests that are 6 times longer than the competitive solar panels in 2017, the company has made the solar panel production line a full autonomous system with a capacity of 135 MW in line with its own technology. Further, it has increased the number of the team members to 65 engineers, started its 3rd Tubitak Project on solar cells and, carried out the design and feasibility stages for bifacial PERC and heterojunction cells. Having achieved to be entitled to be included into the KOSGEB Technology Investment Program within the scope of this project, the company has changed its name and type and registered as GTC Güneş Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. deciding to continue its business operations only in the solar power industry and establish a solar cell factory.

In spite of the certain market difficulties restricting the production of the company to an average amount of 25 MW per year from 2017 to 2020, the team has seized a chance during this period of working on optimum installation of a power plant, and the actual application thereof and, creating a significant size of performance reference. Further, these years have contributed to the progress of awareness of investors and proved the importance of the state power policies. Upon the inclusion of a Technology Venture Capital Fund from Re-Pie Gayrimenkul ve Girişim Sermayesi Portföy Yönetim A.Ş. to the company as of March 2020, the company has achieved to complete its solar cell factory in Bor, Niğde, and this has made possible for GTC to manufacture domestic solar panels using its own technology with a local content ratio of 70% at the solar power sector. This was the expected and long-awaited achievement from the trademark TürkPanel registered in 2017.

In addition to the ground-mounted solar power plants, the company manufactured optimum solar panels for the installation at airports, BIPV and roofs for 6 corporate customers listed at the top 100 and got accredited for the installation of power plants with its own solar panels. Attaching great importance to the health of its team during the pandemic process, the company had got a chance of explaining what it has achieved so far and what it aims for the future to the business world through various communication channels and, further strengthened the capabilities of its team.

At the same time, despite the two major earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş on February 6, 2023, the company quickly recovered from its wounds, reactivated its production line, and established a 40 container city for its employees in the campus where the production factory is located. Despite all the negativities, with the great dedication of our employees, we returned to the pre-earthquake working tempo.

GTC’s vision is to be a technology company. It is a research and development center. Our aim is to offer innovative, equitable and democratic energy solutions for the society, and ensure the consumer security, environmental sustainability, long-term cost minimization and occupational safety.

When it was established by a female entrepreneur in Istanbul in 1993, GTC has set its foundation principles and operated based on these principles:

• Consumer security,
• Sustainability in supply and sales,
• Environmental sustainability,
• Lowest cost without compromising on quality,
• Employees’ rights,
• Women’s rights,
• Working environment with no discrimination,
• Public health,

Engaging in foreign trade, the company has set its manufacturing base in Southeastern Anatolia after 1997. GTC invested all the economic, commercial, administrative and industrial skills and revenues it has gained in Southeastern Anatolia during a period of 15 years in this region in 2013 by means of establishing an R&D oriented, technological, photovoltaic module manufacturing factory in Adıyaman. During a business cycle while most of the significant investors in the region were moving their investments outside the region, the loyalty and faith of GTC in this region is the true proof of the reliability and competence of GTC.

As a small-scale and independent company, GTC has always protected and honored the rights of its customers, suppliers and employees. This principle has made it possible for the company to establish strong, long lasting, sustainable, common mind & ground based relationships with its customers, suppliers and employees.

GTC has never considered a business model only to increase its short-term benefits. Its business philosophy has always focused on the long-term achievement for the development of the top quality products, the delivery of customer satisfaction and, the provision of the most reliable supply chain. GTC is aware of the fact that it has to manufacture the best quality and the most durable products for sustainability in the long term.

GTC Güneş Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. has set and prepared its Quality Management System (QMS), Environmental Management System (EMS) and Occupational Health and Safety System (OHS) in line with the requirements at set forth under the standards ISO 9001,ISO 14001 and ISO 45001.

The work scope of GTC is that it aims to design, manufacture and sell solar panels and equipment that are capable of converting the solar power to electricity in the most ecological manner, with the least wastage and for the longest period of operation. This work scope defined above is based on the qualification of our organization, the complexity and interaction of our processes, and the competency of our personnel.

• Robert College
• Bachelor’s License in Nuclear Engineering at MIT
• Bachelor’s License in Political Sciences at MIT
• Master’s Degree in Plasma Physics at MIT
• Master’s Degree in Development Economics at Cambridge University

Çiğdem has spent 25 years working at the clothing factories in the least developed regions in Turkey to sell products to the stores of Sears and KMart in the USA. She has focused on the contribution of female employees to the production, provision of increase in the incomes obtained by them, self-sustained local economies and, ‘domestic goods’.

During this process, she has always remained to be physicist in spirit and at heart, and invested all the resources available the company in a solar power factory that she established in another underdeveloped region with newly graduated local engineers. She has spent the period from 2013 to 2015 organizing seminars to train the GTC team with the participation of professionals in this area from solar power suppliers, machinery manufacturers and research centers. She has aimed at a proactive business model through which the employees could take responsibilities and participate in the management in due course.

Çiğdem’s passion for research and development in the field of solar power has resulted in the establishment of the first private R&D center in Turkey. The aim is to position GTC as an advanced technology company and, create a worldwide-known brand in Turkey.