Bulgaria - 156 MW wind park launched

AES Corp. launched a 156 megawatt wind park in Bulgaria this week Tuesday, the U.S. energy company said, doubling the country's wind power base. The 270-million-euro ($397.6 million) wind farm, near the town of Kavarna on the northern Black Sea coast, was officially connected to the national grid.

The wind farm, the country's largest, will contribute to Bulgaria's target of increasing the share of renewable energy to 16 percent by 2020 as part of European Union efforts to combat climate change. "With the park coming on-stream, the wind power capacity of Bulgaria doubles," said Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, who attended the official ceremony in Kavarna.

Bulgaria's installed wind power capacity totalled 159 MW before the launch. The country gets 43 percent of its power from coal and 40 percent from nuclear energy while only 7 percent comes from renewable energy, mainly hydro power plants.

AES, the largest industrial investor in the Balkan country since the fall of communism in 1989, is also building a 1.2 billion euro, 670 MW coal-fired power plant in Bulgaria's Maritsa East lignite coal mining complex, which will be completed by May 2010.

The country's first factory for production of solar panels also opened on Tuesday. The aim is to increase the use of photovoltaic energy, which turns sunlight into power. Privately-held Alfa Finance Holding has invested 20 million euros in the new plant, which will create 120 jobs in the Danube town of Silistra, and pledged to invest a further 100 million euros to expand the plant and build solar energy parks.

For more information please contact Trevor Sievert at ts@windfair.net