Swiss Atel To Take Over Bulgarian Wind Farm Developer Vetrocom for Undisclosed Price

Swiss energy group Atel said on Wednesday it will acquire 100% of Bulgarian wind farm developer Vetrocom for an undisclosed price aiming to expand its portfolio of renewable energy production facilities in Central and Eastern Europe.

"The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price," Atel said in a statement.

Vetrocom plans to build a wind farm with 20 wind turbine generators with a capacity of 2.5 megawatts (MW) each near the town of Kazanlak, in central Bulgaria and 200 kilometres east of Sofia. The wind farm, which is designed to have an average gross annual production volume of 167 gigawatthours, is scheduled to go into operation in 2010-2011, Atel said.

The partners have also agreed to collaborate on additional renewable energy projects, Atel added.

With the acquisition, Atel is targeting to increase the share of renewable generation in its portfolio, supported by European Union (EU) egislation which aims to achieve a minimum share of renewable energy production of eleven percent by 2010 and 20 percent by 2020.

At present, the share of renewable energy produced in Bulgaria is around five percent, it said and estimated that the country has a potential for wind farms with roughly 2,200 MW capacity.

Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007.

Atel (www.atel.eu), set up in 1894, claims to be Switzerland's leading energy provider. The group, which currently employs some 9,000, reporeted total revenue of 13.5 billion Swiss francs ($13.4 billion/8.4 billion euro) for 2007, up 18.7% from 2006.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!