Bulgaria's Innovation Company Shelves 120 MW Solar Park Project

The Shumen city authorities have been caught in a political power struggle, prompting the project, planned to kick off in 2008, to be put on hold indefinitely, Innovation Company’s board chairman, Emil Minev, told SeeNews.

Shumen’s municipal council decided on Thursday to create a 250-hectare industrial zone instead of the smaller site that was designated to host the solar park.

No municipality officials were immediately available to comment on Friday.

Innovation Company planned to build a state-of-the-art greenhouse and a plant to process solid waste into synthetic fuels alongside the solar power facilities, said Minev.

It has contracted Bulgarian electronics producer Orgtechnika to manufacture the solar panels for the park.

The solar park was estimated at 220 million euro ($322.2 million) in 2007, when Innovation Company announced the project. The funding was to be secured by German-Swiss fund ICS, but it withdrew from the investment after the project did not get the necessary political backing, said Minev.

Innovation Company (www.innovationsolarco.com) has also abandoned plans to create a network of solar energy installations in northeast Bulgaria.