Austria's EVN Plans To Invest Over 200 Mln Euro in Wind Farms in SEE in Next Two Years

Austrian power utility EVN said it plans to invest over 200 million euro ($254 million) in wind farm projects in Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia in the next two years.

"The group’s expectations are to develop in mid-terms wind generated energy projects in the region at total capacity over 100 megawatts (MW)," a company statement quoted EVN head for southeast Europe (SEE), Stefan Szyszkowitz, as telling a recent seminar on investment opportunities in SEE. The statement was made available to SeeNews on Tuesday.

EVN, through its Bulgarian subsidiary Naturkraft, is already working on a wind farm project with a 40-50 MW capacity in the region of Varna, on the Black Sea, Szyszkowitz said.

"The investments needed for the construction of wind farms in Bulgaria, Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Romania are estimated at more than 200 million euro," Szyszkowitz said.

In Bulgaria where EVN operates as a electricity distributor supplying some 1.6 million customers, the company is also interested in becoming an investor in the construction of a long-delayed hydropower cascade on the Gorna Arda river, and in a project for a coal-fired power plant, running water supply systems and building wastewater treatment plants.

In Macedonia, EVN serves 720,000 customers as an electricity distributor.

EVN's combined investments so far in Macedonia and Bulgaria are estimated at 550 million euro.

In SEE, the company is also active in Albania where it will build a 48 MW power plant, Ashta, on the river Drin, jointly with Austrian electricity producing and transporting company Verbund. The project costs 160 million euro.

($ = 0.7875 euro)

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