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From Bulgaria

08.03.2012 11:30

Bulgarian Wind Energy Association Requests a Check on All RES Projects

According to the executive director of BGWEA Mr Sebastian Noetlichs, some of the renewable energy projects may not have fulfilled all requirements for connection before the deadline

AUTHOR: Atanas Georgiev

© BGWEA

Today the Bulgarian Wind Energy Association (BGWEA) announced at a press-conference, that it will request with an official letter to Bulgarian institutions a check on all preliminary and final connection contracts between grid operators and investors, after the enactment of the Renewable Energy Law in May 2011. All projects had to fulfill a set of conditions before July 21, 2011, Mr Sebastian Noetlichs, executive director of BGWEA reminded. Even though some of the projects may not have fulfilled all requirements for connection before the deadline, they continued ahead, he added.

Noetlichs reminded, that according to the RES law (ZEVI), all projects had to fulfill three conditions in order to continue their development after July 21, 2011 - to pay a guarantee/deposit of 50 thousand BGN (about 25 thousand EUR) per MW installed capacity; to present enough evidence of property rights; and to have complete construction documentation according to environment assessment and detailed site development plan.

The executive director of BGWEA also reminded, that according to preliminary assessments of the association, only a few of the large projects could have fulfilled all requirements within the deadline. However, later it turned out that many projects went ahead and concluded preliminary and final contracts.
BGWEA will send today an open letter with request for a check of all RES projects to the Prime-minister Boyko Borisov, to the energy minister Traicho Traikov and his deputy Delyan Dobrev, to the chairman of the regulatory commission (SEWRC) Angel Semerdjiev, to the chairman of the economic commission in the Parliament Martin Dimitrov, to the CEO of NEK Mihail Andonov, and to the diplomatic missions in Bulgaria of Germany, USA, Austria, Spain, Italy, and France.

According to BGWEA analysis, more than 50% of the projects with preliminary contracts (over 1000 MW capacities of a total of about 2000 MW) may have problems. Some of them may be in Northeastern Bulgaria, Nikolay Nikolov, juridical analyst of BGWEA, said. The total capacity of RES projects with contracts (preliminary or final) after July 21, 2011, is about 2500 MW for wind, 1500 for solar, and the rest 700 MW (up to a total of all RES - 4700 MW) - from other sources.

Some of the documents that BGWEA presented today (in Bulgarian language):