Construction begins on Bulgaria’s largest solar plant

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.

December 16, 2022 Emiliano Bellini

Verila solar plant

Image: Sunotec

Sunotec has revealed that it has started working on a 124 MW solar plant on Verila Mountain in western Bulgaria, east of the small town of Dupnitsa.

The company said it will build the facility at an altitude between 700 meters and 1,000 meters above sea level, with slopes as steep as 18 degrees.

“The lower temperatures caused by the high altitude contribute to the generation of additional power,” it said in a statement. “However, this also means that we have to adapt the machinery as well as the sequence of implementation to the challenging topography of the site.”

Sunotec said will use 220,230 PV modules, 4,305 tons of steel, and 1,125.5 kilometers of cabling for the project. It did not provide any additional technical or financial details, but it said that it expects to complete construction on the plant by the end of the first half of 2023.

Bulgaria‘s electricity system operator (ESO) said it has accepted applications to build more than 24 GW of new renewable energy projects. The nation could become one of the most dynamic solar markets in Europe by 2024, according to a recent report by SolarPower Europe. It said the country reached 1.1 GW of cumulative installed PV capacity at the end of 2020 and will hit 3.8 GW by 2024. Market uptake will mainly be supported by unsubsidized large-scale solar projects built under power purchase agreements.

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