Local subsidiary of US-based AES Corporation said that its 156 MW wind farm Saint Nikola, the largest such facility in the country, generated a total of 55,000 MWh of electricity in January, the highest monthly output since its commissioning in 2010.
The statement from AES Bulgaria said that the amount of electricity generated by the wind farm alone is enough to cover the needs of some 185,000 households. In addition, its coal-fired thermal power plant Galabovo produced 337.520 MWh of electricity in January, which is an 11 % increase year-on-year. The TPP and the wind farm jointly covered about 10 % of Bulgaria’s consumption in January.
In 1999, US AES Corporation purchased the majority stake in Bulgaria’s Maritsa East 1 power plant, subsequently renamed AES Galabovo in
2009. AES completed the full acquisition of the thermal power plant from Ireland’s Consolidated Continental Commerce Limited in 2005.
Saint Nikola wind park is located near the town of Kavarna on the Black Sea coast. It was built in 2009 and put into operation a year later. It has 52 wind turbines with power output of 3 MW each. The total investment in the project was 270 million euros, of which 198 million euros was provided by a bank consortium including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the International Financial Corporation (IFC) and UniCredit Bank.
