During the two-month state of emergency,in the period between 13 March and 12 May, coal-fired thermal power plant AES Galabovo and its wind farm Saint Nikola produced around 460 GWh of electricity. TPP Galabovo produced a total of 3.14 million MWh of electricity in 2019, which is 5.5 % more than in the previous year. At the same time, Saint Nikola wind farm the largest wind farm in the country, produced a total of 291 GWh of electricity, compared to 318 GWh in 2018. The plant itself covered about 8.3 % of Bulgaria’s electricity consumption in 2019 and consumed about 5.37 million tons of coal, 3.3 % more than in 2018.The 156 MW wind park has saved Bulgaria 323,277 tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2019. The produced electricity was enough to cover the needs of some 1.8 million households in the country.
Saint Nikola wind park is located near the town of Kavarna on the Black Sea coast. It was built in 2009 and put into operation a year later. It has 52 wind turbines with power output of 3 MW each. The total investment in the project was 270 million euros, of which 198 million euros was provided by a bank consortium including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the International Financial Corporation (IFC) and UniCredit Bank. In 1999, US AES Corporation purchased the majority stake in Bulgaria’s Maritsa East 1 power plant, subsequently renamed AES Galabovo in 2009. AES completed the full acquisition of the 600 MW thermal power plant from Ireland’s Consolidated Continental Commerce Limited in 2005.
