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Spanish co to invest in Pleven area biofuel refinery

Spanish company Koener plans to build a 60 mln euro biodiesel plant in the Pleven area, Northern Bulgaria.

Company officials have met with the regional government to discuss the project.

The output of the refinery will be mainly exported to Austria, Germany, Romania and Serbia.

Koener officials have visited suitable plant sites in the municipalities of Gulyantsi and Nikopol.

The region is attractive for biofuel investors due to the large area of technical crops like sunseed and grain.

The fuel refinery should begin operation in 2009.

Half of the project funding will be provided by the investor while the remainder will be borrowed from banks. (Dnevnik)

Balkan Solar co eyes power production permit

Local company Balkan Solar has asked the Bulgarian power regulator to issue a 35-year licence for the operation of a 25MW photo-voltaic power generation capacity.

The State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission is likely to review the application next week.

The solar modules will be installed in Godech, Pernik and the village of Divotino, all in Western Bulgaria.

The equipment will be supplied by Greece 's Solar Technologies.

Balkan Energy, another Maccap company, is developing a wind farm project near Dobrich.

Maccap subsidiary Balkan Utilities is a licensed power trader. (Dnevnik)

Brussels to allow Bulgaria 20 per cent increase in greenhouse gas emission quotas

Spasena Baramova

The European Commission (EC) would propose that the newest EU member states, Bulgaria and Romania, be allowed to increase their greenhouse gas emissions quotas, EuroNews said as reported by mediapool.bg. The decision to allow 20 per cent more greenhouse gas emissions for the period until the year 2020 as compared with the base year 2005 was expected to be announced next week.

This measure was being taken so the economies of the two countries could catch up. The oldest 15 EU member states were going to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions in order to make up for the increase allowed to Bulgaria and Romania.

Instead of the requested equivalent of 67 million tons of carbon dioxide, Brussels reduced the amounts to 42 million tons per year for the 2008-2012 period, mediapool.bg said.

(Dnevnik)

Industry tries joint approach in tackling biofuel market bottlenecks

Representatives of the local biofuel producers and the operators of filling stations will put together a working group with the task of drawing up joint legislative proposals aimed at injecting a spark in the nation's dormant alternative fuels market.

The announcement was made after Wednesday's breakthrough meeting between officials from the Bulgarian Petroleum and Gas Association and the Biofuels and Renewable Energy Sources Association which met for the first time in a bid to resolve their differences.

The effective legislation on excise and tax warehouses provides for a 3% excise rebate for 4-5% alternative fuel mixes while the two association advocate a rebate in proportion to the bio component.(Dnevnik)

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Provadia biodiesel refinery to begin operation in Apr

Agricultural holding company Zarneni Hrani Bulgaria (ZHB) said it will launch into operation its first biodiesel plant in April.

The plant was scheduled to begin work in March but the spell of bad weather in early January in the Provadia area where it is located pushed the target back a month.

ZHB intends to invest 130 mln levs over the next five years with the bulk of the resource earmarked for the Provadia plant.

A second biofuel refinery is also planned to build at a cost of 100 mln levs.

Each of the refineries will have an annual capacity of 100,000 tons. The management estimates that would represent 50% of the installed biofuel capacity nationwide.

Net unconsolidated profit was reported at 12.85 mln levs for 2007 with sales at 36.21 mln levs.

(Dnevnik)