Bulgaria

Tenevo Solar plant is expected have a solar capacity of 238 MW, a wind capacity of 237 MW and a storage capacity of 250 MW-500 MWh, with construction starting this month. Konstantin Nenov, director of Renalfa AD – one of the businesses behind the project – tells pv magazine the plant is emblematic of the Balkan country shifting away from coal and towards the sun.

Bulgarian developer Sunotec says it expects to complete the 124 MW Verila solar project by the end of 2023. It says it will build the array at an altitude between 700 meters and 1,000 meters above sea level.

The Bulgarian grid operator says the nation urgently needs to expand its grid to accommodate planned renewables capacity. It is now holding meetings with potential investors.

The government’s energy strategy targets new clean energy capacity this decade but all existing coal power plants will also remain active, gas pipelines could be upgraded and new nuclear facilities deployed.

The government is considering a €0.12/kWh feed-in tariff for PV installations with a generation capacity of up to 5 kW and of €0.10 for 5-30 kW systems. If implemented, the scheme will come into force next month.

The transaction includes the sale of a solar park located in western Bulgaria.

The project is expected to be built by local company 4B Solar in three phases by the end of 2022.

The eastern European country saw the addition of only a few hundreds kilowatts of PV over the past few years, and for 2017 just around 200 kW of new PV systems are expected to come online.