Electrohold Bulgaria switches on 123 MW solar park to power Yettel, Cetin

The solar park, the largest in Bulgaria, commanded an overall investment of roughly 200 million levs ($112.6 million/102.3 million euro), which was in part provided by Eurohold and complemented by financing from DSK Bank and Varengold Bank, Eurohold Bulgaria said in a press release.

The investor was Belozem Solar Park 3, which counts among its owners Eurohold's majority shareholders.

Thanks to the recently signed 10-year corporate power purchase agreement (PPA), Verila's output, supplied by subsidiary Electrohold Trade, will cover around 80% and 86% of the respective total energy consumption of Yettel and Cetin, both part of Czechia's PPF Group.

The construction work was completed by German-Bulgarian utility solar PV plant developer Sunotec, which broke ground on the project in September last year.

The ground-mounted installation, located on mountain hills near the southwestern town of Dupnitsa, is equipped with over 220,000 solar panels and more than 4,200 tonnes of steel structure. Its installed capacity is equal to around 7% of all completed solar PV systems in Bulgaria to date, according to data as of end-2022 provided by ENTSO-E, the EU association of electricity transmission system operators.

According to Eurohold Bulgaria chairman Kiril Boshov, the group's renewables portfolio is expected to increase to over 500 MW by the end of 2023, in line with of its growth strategy that foresees a vertical business model spanning the production, distribution,
supply and sale of green electricity.

Eurohold Bulgaria last year acquired in full the power distribution and trading operations of Czech energy group CEZ before delisting them from the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)