August 10 (SeeNews) - The northeastern Bulgarian municipality of Razgrad said it launched a public tender for developing an investment concept for the planned construction of a local hydrogen industrial zone, including a 25-MW solar plant.
The investment concept project is being financed through a 60,000 euro ($61,475 ) grant awarded by the European City Facility (EUCF), Razgrad municipality said in a statement on Tuesday.
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The conceptual design of the facility received strong approval from the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance, to which it was presented in November 2021. The investment concept needs to include legal, economic and financial analyses, a list of investment stakeholders as well as an investment roadmap, according to the statement.
Interested bidders are invited to apply by August 23. The investment concept must be developed within 120 calendar days after the contract is awarded.
Once the public tender procedure is completed, the municipality will be able to start looking for investors for the Industrial Zone H2-Razgrad project. It will also be authorised to apply to the European Commission for funding under its 2021-2030 energy efficiency programme, which is worth an estimated 34.5 million euro.
Apart from the solar park, which will provide 3,250 MWh of renewable power per year, other initiatives include the construction and commissioning of a 10-MW electrolyser that will use the electricity from the solar plant to produce 714 tonnes of clean hydrogen per year as well as exploration and repair of existing pipelines so as to carry hydrogen to partially replace natural gas used by the industrial area. Clean hydrogen can also be supplied and compressed for other uses by local industry or the municipality. A hydrogen charging station near the Razgrad-Popovo road is also planned.
The total renewable energy output of the project will amount to 33,000 GWh per year, with estimated annual energy savings of 3,000 GWh.
In January, Razgrad municipality began using a clean hydrogen-oxygen mix in combination with methane for the heating of the local administration building. The clean energy is produced by the GI5000 electrolyser system installed by Bulgarian company Green Innovation.
($ = 0.9760 euro)