German Firm Gehrlicher Completes Bulgarian Solar Plant

Gehrlicher Solar AG, a German company, has completed its first Bulgarian photovoltaic project, a 1.2 MW project located west of Sofia.

The photovoltaic plant in Kosharevo near Breznik is expected to generate around 1.4 million kW/h of energy annually.

The 1.2 MW photovoltaic plant will receive a feed-in tariff rate of 35.75 euro cents per kWh, the PV Magazine reported.

The German solar company completed construction on the project in June. It is expected to be grid connected shortly.

Spread across 1.9 hectares, Gehrlicher says it installed a total of 4 968 Sunowe modules, 54 SMA inverters and GehrTec Base, its in-house substructure for ground-mounted systems.

Bulgarian investor group GSG Studena OOD owns and operates the photovoltaic plant. Meanwhile, Gehrlicher was responsible for the project planning engineering, construction and technical operation.

"We were able to realize this first large-scale project within a few weeks, even before the reduction of compensation by July 1. As a result, the solar park will receive feed-in compensation of 35.75 cents per kWh," Gerald Kumerle, technical director of the Business Unit Ground-Mounted Systems, is quoted as saying.

He believes that even with the reduced tariffs (24.83 cents per kWh), solar projects will be profitable in Bulgaria.

"We are planning to expand the Kosharevo Solar Park in the course of the coming months to exceed three MWp and already have additional projects in the double-digit MWp range in the pipeline," he said.