SOFIA (Bulgaria), October 8 (SeeNews) – Raiffeisen Energy & Environment (REE) plans to increase its wind power capacities in Bulgaria by 32 megawatts (MW) to 40 MW by the end of this year and to keep up this growth pace in the coming years, the company's managing director Rudi Plasil said on Wednesday.
"We intend to operate 40 MW by the end of this year and we see a similar development within the coming years," Plasil said in a statement e-mailed to SeeNews.
The company has two wind farm developments, Kavarna East and Kavarna West, on Bulgaria’s northeast Black Sea coast. It launched its first project of four wind turbines in June and is planning to launch a second wind farm of sixteen turbines with a capacity of 2 MW each by the end of this year. Wind turbine manufacturer Vestas Central Europe announced on Monday that REE has ordered the turbines for the second project, which are to be delivered and commissioned by the end of the year.
"We invest currently approximately 65 million euro ($88.7 million) [in Bulgaria]. We plan to invest a similar amount within the next years," Plasil said.
Bulgaria, which joined the European Union in 2007, should cover 11% of its electricity consumption by power generated from renewable sources by 2010 and 16% by 2020 under agreements with the bloc. At present, wind turbines with an nstalled capacity of around 120 MW operate in the country, whose estimated potential for wind farms is roughly 2,200 MW.
Raiffeisen Energy & Environment (www.ree.at), the alternative energy investment division of Austrian financial group Raiffeisenbank, specialises in the acquisition, development, construction and operation of energy projects, including renewables. It is operational in all southeast European markets, except for Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Greece and Turkey.
"We see Turkey in the medium term and the other countries in the long term as target markets," Plasil said.
Wind power projects are the fastest growing energy sector in the world. Wind capacities in southeast Europe are still far less than in western Europe but the region is seen as increasingly attractive by investors in this sector.
($ = 0.7329 euro)
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