October 15 (SeeNews) - Belgian renewable energy resource developer Electrawinds said on Thursday it plans to invest 106 million levs ($80.7 million/54.2 million euro) in the construction of a 30 megawatt (MW) wind farm on Bulgaria's southern Black Sea coast by 2011.
The project will be carried out in the region of Burgas and is planned to be expanded at a later stage, Lozan Stefanov, managing director of the company's local unit Electrawinds Bulgaria, told reporters.
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The park will comprise 15 wind generators and will have an annual generation capacity of 66,230 megawatthours.
The Burgas area project is the company's second venture in Bulgaria. It is already developing a 8.0 MW wind farm worth 14 million euro in Shabla, on the north Black Sea coast. The facility should be connected to the power grid next spring.
Electrawinds Bulgaria has plans to develop photovoltaic and biomass projects as well, Stefanov said.
Electrawinds (www.electrawinds.be), set up in 1998, develops wind, solar and biomass electricity projects in Belgium, France, Italy, Bulgaria and Romania and has plans to enter Serbia with a renewable energy project. It has so far installed 195 MW of wind, solar and biomass capacities.
The development of renewable energy resources in Bulgaria gained momentum following Bulgaria's entry in the European Union in 2007. Bulgaria must cover 11% of its gross domestic energy consumption with power from renewable energy sources by 2010 and should increase that share to 16% by 2020, compared to the current output which is below 10%.
The Balkan state currently has 330 MW of installed wind farm capacities.
(1 euro=1.95583 Bulgarian levs)