April 28 (SeeNews) - South Africa-based lithium-ion battery storage systems manufacturer Solar MD will launch its first production site out of Africa next week - in the Bulgarian city of Ruse, with output to be exported to the European market, Nikolay Bashev, head of the company's local unit that will operate the plant, told SeeNews on Friday.
Solar MD Giga 2, the Bulgaria-registered subsidiary, will rely on local companies to produce the metal structures for the battery products, Bashev told SeeNews over the phone. He declined to disclose the amount of the planned investment, but added that the South African parent company has been looking to start production in Europe as fast as possible.
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"It took under a year, from the idea of a factory to the realisation," Bashev said.
The plant will open in Ruse on May 2, according to a press release issued on Friday by the Bulgarian Association for production, storage and trading of electricity (APSTE), a non-profit body working to accelerate the development and market integration of renewable energy and energy storage technologies in Bulgaria. Solar MD is a founding member of APSTE.
"Solar MD is the largest manufacturer of energy storage systems in Africa, with over 7,000 projects successfully completed in the last decade. We are happy that the next phase of our international expansion includes a new production site in Bulgaria, in my home city of Ruse," Solar MD co-founder and CEO Kaloyan Dimov said in the statement.
With Bulgaria expected to have over 6,000 MW of installed wind and solar capacity within three years, the availability of affordable and reliable energy storage systems will play a key role in the operation and balancing of the energy system, according to APSTE chairman Nikola Gazdov.
Founded in 2014, Cape Town-headquartered Solar MD designs, develops, installs and maintains residential, commercial and utility-scale lithium-ion battery storage systems with capacity of up to 20MWh.