N-Vision Energy to Build Bulgaria?s 2nd Largest Wind Farm in Kyustendil

The Kyustendil Municipality is going to provide land and will grant construction rights for up to 45 wind turbines on Konyavska Planina and Viden Peak. In exchange, it will receive up-front fixed payments during development and construction of project to the total amount of BGN 3,825 M.

Up to 75 percent of the wind farm will be debt-financed. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and export credit agencies are expected to take part in the funding of the project.

Wind farms in Bulgaria have mushroomed over the last couple of years as investors take advantage of incentives such as preferential prices which Sofia offers for power produced from renewable energy sources.

Bulgaria plans to increase the share of renewable energy to 16 percent by 2020 as part of European Union efforts to combat climate change.

The new wind energy project will be the second largest in Bulgaria after the 156 MW wind farm built by AES Corp. near the town of Kavarna on the northern Black Sea coast, which was officially connected to the national grid earlier this month.

Once the wind power project operates it will generate annual income for the municipality, ranging between 500 000 and 900 000 BGN in the first year and averaging more than 1 000 000 BGN per year over the lifetime of the project.

Approximately 100 jobs will be created during the construction period and another 20 jobs will be created for the lifetime of the project.

The N-Vision Energy wind power farm will produce green electricity for more than 90 000 households. According to the company, “the amount of coal saved would be enough to fill the road from Kyustendil to Sofia a meter high every year,“ and will save nearly half a million tons of CO2 annually,

The N-Vision wind farm in Kyustendil is supposed to be in operation at the end of 2011. It will have between 25 and 45 wind turbines.

The Kyustendil Municipality is planned to receive some BGN 29 M in annual payments over the next 20 years if current electricity price increase continues.

Bulgaria is aiming to develop a potent wind energy infrastructure as the country is trying to comply with the designated EU strategy target that 20 per cent of all energy should come from renewable sources by 2020.

Bulgaria currently has 158 MW of wind energy and is set to double that capacity when AES Corp. begins commercial operation on its 156 MW wind farm in Bulgarevo, near Kavarna in northeastern Bulgaria, in autumn 2009. Only Poland, with 472 MW, has a larger wind energy capacity among the EU’s eastern member states, although eastern European countries are still lagging considerably behind their western counterparts.

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