Swiss Co Mulls Investing 85-100 Mln Euro in Solar Panels Plant in Bulgaria or Germany - Project Coordinator

An unnamed Swiss company is considering investing 85-100 million euro ($114.3 million-134.5 million) in a solar panels plant in Bulgaria or eastern Germany, a coordinator of the project said on Tuesday.

"We have a Swiss investor who is trying to decide where to put his investment in photovoltaics. [...] He is considering Bulgaria and eastern Germany," Steve Carney of The Linde Group told SeeNews on the sidelines of the 5th International Congress and Exhibition on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources for Southeast Europe held in Sofia.

"That plant will be an investment of somewhere in the order 85 to 100 million euros."

Apart from a project coordinator, the technological group is also planning to be a supplier for the future plant. "In about two-three weeks we expect to sit down - Linde and a couple of other companies - with the investor and design the business case," Carney said, adding that after that talks with the investment promotion bodies of both Bulgaria and Germany will be held.

"I expect this investor will make the decision [where to build the plant] in the next three to six months."

Carney added that the plant could become operational in up to two years.

The plant's output will be sold to companies with solar energy business in the region. The market of Southeast Europe has a significant growth potential as the solar business is still underdeveloped, the climate is ideal for solar power generation and the population of Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey exceeds 100 million people, Carney said.

The Linde Group (www.linde.com) is a gases and engineering company with almost 52,000 employees working in around 100 countries. It had sales of 12.7 billion euro last year, up 2.9% from the previous year.

($ = 0.7437 euro)

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