AES Geo Energy, a joint company between US energy giant AES and Bulgarian-German enterprise Geo Power is planning to build a second wind power park in Northeastern Bulgaria, Geo Power Manager Thomas Funke has announced.

Back in 2009, AES and Geo Power opened the largest wind energy plant in Southeastern Europe, the St. Nikola Park near Bulgaria's Kavarna, with a total capacity of 156 MW.

However, Funke told BTA Monday that the St. Nikola Park is still working at 80% of its capacity because of problems with the capacity of the Bulgarian power grid.

In his words, at the time of the launch of the AES Geo Energy plant, Bulgaria's National Electric Company NEK was not ready to handle the new electricity generation capacity; thus, the St. Nikolas Wind Park is expected to reach 100% of its production capacity once two electricity distribution stations – in the village of Vidno near Kavarna and near the city of Dobrich – are completed.

"Once we are convinced that NEK is in the position to handle the entire amount of electricity that we can produce, within a year and a half we will be ready to build the new wind park," Funke stated, as cited by BTA.

However, he has not revealed the projected capacity of the planned new wind power facility.

He noted that in the past 1.5 year since its launch, the staff of the St. Nikola wind power facility have acquired valuable experience about the functioning of the wind park.

The St. Nikola park employs 6-7 people as service personnel and 18-20 technicians who are representatives of the producer of the wind turbines.

Geo Power Manager Thomas Funke has been working in the field of wind energy since 1998.

He came to Bulgaria in 2003 when the country still had no legislation about renewable energy.

The AES Geo Energy company was founded by Geo Power and AES in 2006.

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