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Japan's Toshiba to build solar plant in Bulgaria

Tuesday, Jan 25, 2011

Japanese consumer electronics maker Toshiba Corp plans to invest funds in the construction of a solar park near the city of Yambol, southeastern Bulgaria, the company said as quoted by AFP on January 21 2011, but declined to reveal the planned investment.

Earlier that day, Japanese media reported, as quoted by Reuters, that Toshiba, utility company Tokyo Electric Power and the Japanese government would allocate a combined 100 billion Japanese yen to build a large solar power plant in Bulgaria within the next five years. According to the report, Toshiba would team up with Czech energy distributor CEZ to build the facility, which will have a capacity of 250 MW.

CEZ, which supplies electricity to western Bulgaria, said that the report had been denied by the company's headquarters in Prague.

"Together with Toshiba, we have so far considered the possibility of building a solar park with a capacity of 9 MW on an area of 30 hectares," an official at Yambol's municipality told Dnevnik. The project has been estimated at 37.5 million euro, but the city's authorities hope that the Japanese company has changed its decision and agreed to raise the investment.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria's Economy Minister Traicho Traikov to soon sign a memorandum of understanding with Japan on energy co-operation, the ministry said.

Source: sofiaecho.com