Bulgaria launched with an official commissioning ceremony the largest photovoltaic park in the Balkans.

The installations near the village of Samovodene and the town of Zlataritsa were built by the South Korean companies SDN and KOSEP. The total power of the parks is 42 MW with an annual electricity production of 61 320 MWh, which will provide electric power for 2 000 households.

According to the Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Economy and Energy Julieta Hubenova, the installations contribute significantly to achieving the goal of reducing harmful emissions by an expected 26 000 tons annually. This is the only project to date that has been licensed by the State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation, DKEVR, to produce photovoltaic energy and that has a purchase contract with the National Electric Company, NEK.

These photovoltaic systems are the largest Korean investment in the country to date with a cost of EUR 154 M. Their commissioning is another step towards achieving the country's goal of a 16% share of renewable energy sources in the total final consumption in Bulgaria by 2020, according to Hubenova.

The project's implementation started in December 2010. The SDN Company then explained that the investment includes building a substation and a transmission line to connect the output of over 20 megawatts to the transmission network.