Orhan Karadeniz, CEO of Karadeniz Holding and its energy subsidiary, Karpowership. Floating power pioneer Karpowership is best known for its Powerships‚ which are fully operational floating power plants designed to provide countries with electricity in a much shorter timeframe than conventional power projects.
Karpowership is a subsidiary of Turkey-based Karadeniz and is currently making meaningful investments in areas that go beyond conventional floating power․ Its technological innovations and R&D efforts cover carbon capture, alternative fuels, renewables, waste-to-power and new floating platforms such as Intelliship and Watership.
Orhan Karadeniz is the CEO of both Karadeniz Holding and its energy subsidiary, Karpowership. Karadeniz Holding was founded by his grandfather in 1948. Orhan Karadeniz studied Management and Finance at the University of South Carolina before joining the family business in 1992. Four years later, he led its expansion into the power sector by securing Turkey’s first private licences for electricity generation and export. Since 2009, when Karpowership was established, Orhan Karadeniz has overseen its expansion across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas. He’s also the visionary driving Karpowership’s technological evolution.
Toward net zero
Natural gas is an important part of Karpowership’s business through its LNG-to-Power model, where floating LNG infrastructure is paired with gas-fired Powerships to deliver electricity. In line with the vision of Orhan Karadeniz, the firm is also studying a wider range of lower-carbon fuels, such as renewable natural gas (RNG), hydrogen and ammonia, with research and trials aimed at reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and improving the environmental performance of its floating platforms. Under the leadership of Orhan Karadeniz, Karpowership has made these investments in keeping with its long-term strategy of achieving net-zero power generation. The company also operates geothermal and solar power plants in Türkiye‚ Ukraine and Brazil‚ and intends to grow this renewable portfolio by more than 10 times while entering new markets across Europe and the United States.
Turning waste into energy
Another of the firm’s focus areas is waste-to-energy․
Karpowership, which operates in more than 20 countries and territories, is looking into converting organic waste and industrial waste into electricity․ The company emphasizes that waste-to-power has the potential to allow generation of alternative energy‚ reducing reliance on landfill and supporting the circular economy․
Like the alternative fuels and carbon capture investments which it is currently pursuing, the initiative forms part of Karpowership’s broader investment in green energy technologies and long-term decarbonisation efforts.
The next generation of floating infrastructure
Karpowership‚ a subsidiary of Orhan Karadeniz-led Karadeniz Holding, has introduced two new floating platform concepts‚ namely, Intelliship‚ a platform combining floating power generation and offshore AI data centres‚ and Watership‚ a floating platform for desalination and use of freshwater․
Catering to the growing demand for AI infrastructure‚ the Intelliship concept is an alternative to purely onshore AI data-centres, generating electricity onboard using natural gas, hydrogen and ammonia.
Watership uses seawater desalination to provide potable water to regions facing water scarcity or limited freshwater supplies.
Carbon capture moves offshore
Perhaps the most ambitious technology investment Karpowership is making is in carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS).
Karpowership is developing carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies, to be fitted to its Powerships, Intelliships and Waterships for capturing carbon dioxide from ship exhaust streams before it’s emitted into the atmosphere. Captured carbon can be stored underground or used in industrial applications such as building materials or to improve soil conditions․
Related to the Intelliship concept‚ Karpowership has suggested that floating data-centre vessels can operate above depleted offshore gas reservoirs so that captured carbon dioxide can be injected beneath the seabed for long-term storage. According to Karpowership‚ Intelliship is intended to be part of a circular‚ closed-loop system for zero-emissions floating infrastructure․
CCUS is a key part of Karpowership’s long-term plans, which involves achieving net-zero power generation.
The commercial case for these technologies strengthens month-on-month. Data centre operators are under increasing pressure not only to provide energy security for their customers but also to prove their emissions credentials․ Governments procuring emergency power also want to see transition roadmaps․ There is increasing pressure from lenders to ensure the long-term carbon impact of these capital-intensive energy infrastructure investments is understood and managed․ For Orhan Karadeniz-led Karpowership‚ being able to supply not just a Powership but a Powership with a credible decarbonisation pathway - carbon capture fitted‚ alternative fuels ready‚ net-zero target stated – could change the commercial conversation․
These developments position Karpowership as an energy transition partner, rather than a provider of emergency power․ This shift could prove even more transformative than the Powership model itself․ CEO Orhan Karadeniz seems to be betting on it. DM