|
3 October 2003 - Austrian power companies, VA Tech Hydro, Verbundplan and Alpine Mayreder Bau have agreed a €200m ($234m) project with Bulgaria's power export monopoly NETC on Wednesday to build an 80 MW hydro power station and a dam in the Balkan country.
The proposed plant at the Vacha River in the Rhodope Mountain in southeastern Bulgaria will generate 185 kWh/year and is expected to be completed in five years, the NETC said in a statement after the deal was signed.
The NETC will finance the new hydropower project through banking credits. Half of the funds would be ensured by an export credit, guaranteed by Austria's bank Oesterreichische Kontrolbank Aktiengellschaft (OeKB), the statement said. The other €100m would be ensured by a commercial credit preferably by Bulgarian banks or branches of foreign banks in the country, it said.
Bulgaria is looking to invest in new power generation facilities to offset the loss of production from two Soviet-designed nuclear reactors which it must close as a condition of joining the European Union, which it hope to do in 2007.
Bulgaria seeks to invest in new power facilities to keep its leading electricity export position in the Balkans after it bowed to the European Union pressure and shut four Soviet-era reactors at its nuclear power plant Kozloduy earlier this year.
| 
Articles 
| View all PennWell sites | View all PennWell events
Add RSS Feed
