Turkey’s Ceylan Holding is undertaking a joint venture with Bulgaria to build a US$220M hydro power project in Bulgaria.
Ceylan Holding and Bulgaria’s state-owned National Electricity Company (NEC) established the joint venture, which will construct a cascade development of three hydro stations, with a total capacity of 170MW, on the Gorna Arda river in the Rhodope mountain range. Each side holds 50% of the shares in the new joint venture.
NEC’s executive director Danail Tafrov said construction of the cascade would start with the commitment by each side of 15% of the required funds. Simultaneously the two sides would seek additional funds from banks and other sources of finance. NEC says it will provide its part of the funding through its own funds, secured through the sale of electricity to Turkey. These exports bring income amounting to some US$150M per year.