U.S. power company AES, hired to build a 670MW coal-fired plant on the site of Bulgaria's Maritsa Iztok 1 thermal power station, said it will participate in a wind farm project near Kavarna, on the Black Sea. The U.S. company enters the project through the acquisition of a minority stake in its developer, Bulgarian-German outfit Geo Power. The size of the transacted minority stake was not disclosed. The ownership in Geo Power is divided between Germany's Get Watt (33%), local company Yomi Engineering and Liechtenstein-registered Epwar Establishment. The 120MW wind park will cost EUR 160-170 mln. Geo Power owns part of the land where the wind turbines will be installed while the rest of the plots are municipal property. The shareholders plan to bring the wind farm on line by 2008. AES will buy a majority stake in the park once it is operational. AES said it will provide financing for the wind power project.

Source: Dnevnik a.m.