Photo: Electrohold
Solaris Holding has inaugurated a solar power plant with an energy storage facility on a former industrial waste site in Pernik, near Bulgaria’s capital Sofia.
The hybrid park consists of a photovoltaic plant with a peak capacity of 32 MW and an electricity storage unit of 61 MWh, Electrohold said.
Solaris Holding is a joint venture of Bulgarian-German solar power plant installer Sunotec and the main shareholders of energy firm Eurohold Bulgaria. Electrohold is owned by Eurohold.
The park was built on an old landfill site of the local steel industry in line with the highest environmental standards, according to the update. Located on 310 hectares, it comprises 56,889 solar panels. The Pernik photovoltaic plant can supply 10,200 households with an average annual consumption of 3.272 MWh per household.
The storage allows long-term contracts for electricity trading at a fixed price
The project was financed by DSK Bank, the Bulgarian subsidiary of Hungarian OTP Bank and Hamburg-based Varengold Bank. Batteries were supplied by Huawei. The produced electricity will be managed by energy trader Electrohold Trade.
According to Electrohold, the battery energy storage system allows the produced green energy to be used during peak consumption hours and smoothly distributed according to demand. It provides new opportunities in the sector and long-term contracts for electricity trading at a fixed price, the firm said.
Solaris Holding intends to install solar power facilities with an overall capacity of 600 MW and storage systems totaling 1,000 MWh.
The second hybrid park is on the way
Kaloyan Velichkov, Sunotec’s CEO, said that before the installation, the site was similar to the lunar landscape. One million cubic meters of soil was removed to prepare the location.
Together with Eurohold and Electrohold, Sunotec will soon open a second hybrid park, in the municipality of Ihtiman, Velichkov noted. The firms are currently developing 23 projects, including independent storage systems.
State support is also important, but the partners have decided to take the risk without waiting for subsidies because energy doesn’t wait, stressed Kiril Boshov, representative of the main shareholders of Eurohold.
According to Electrohold’s Chief Commercial Officer Vladimir Dichev, projects like the hybrid park in Pernik allow them to offer competitive energy at a fixed price in the long term.
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