Atel: New wind farm project in Bulgaria
50 Megawatt wind farm Atel will acquire 100 percent of the Bulgarian wind farm developer Vetrocom Ltd. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. Vetrocom is currently planning to build a wind farm near the city of Kazanlak, some 200 kilometers east of the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. The project involves the installation of 20 wind turbine generators with a capacity of 2.5 Megawatts each to achieve an average gross annual production volume of 167 GWh. This is roughly ten times the volume of wind power produced in Switzerland in the year 2006. The current owners of Vetrocom Ltd. already have experience in developing and realizing wind power facilities. The partners have also agreed to collaborate on additional renewable energy projects.
Bulgaria: High potential for wind power The potential for wind farms in Bulgaria is of a capacity of roughly 2,200 Megawatts. The wind conditions at the site near Kazanlak are excellent. With more than 3,000 full load hours of wind generation per year, conditions are among the best in Europe and far exceed those recorded at the best sites in the Alps.
Share of renewable energy in Bulgaria to rise Today Atel is one of the five largest energy traders in Central/Eastern Europe. As a member of the European Union since early 2007, Bulgaria – along with Romania – is one of Atel's future priority regions in Central Europe. At the end of 2007 Atel founded a subsidiary in Sofia: Atel Bulgaria Ltd. Supported by EU legislation which aims to achieve a minimum share of renewable energy production of eleven percent by 2010 and 20 percent by 2020, Atel intends to increase the share of renewable generation in its portfolio. At present, the share of renewable energy produced in Bulgaria is around five percent. Bulgaria is highly supportive of renewable energy production – for instance, by granting the purchase of all renewable energy produced and imposing a fixed feed-in tariff for renewable energy production.
Atel Holding Ltd Corporate Communications