With its operations in 2019 Saint Nikola Wind Farm, owned by AES Geo Energy, enabled savings of 323 277 tons of СО2

January 9, 2020

Last year the wind farm has generated 291 241 MWh of clean energy for the Bulgarian customers

323 277 tons of СО2 were saved in 2019 in Bulgaria thanks to the operation of the largest wind farm in the country – Saint Nikola Wind Farm. This is around 28,5% more compared to 2018 when the work of the wind farm contributed to the saving of 251 593 tons of СО2. In this way, thanks to its operations last year the wind farm, located next to Kavarna and owned by AES Geo Energy, has contributed to the reduction of the emissions into the air, facilitating the process of slowing down the climate change. At the same time, it has contributed to improving the air quality in the country.

In 2019 Saint Nikola Wind Farm generated 291 241 MWh of renewable energy for the Bulgarian customers. In order to minimize the risk of bird collisions, the 52 turbines of the wind farm stopped working for a total of 8,7 hours. In this way, the safe passing of the flying birds has been secured.

Saint Nikola Wind Farm is at the basis of the Integrated Early Warning System for Bird Protection, which complies with the European requirements for the conservation of wild birds. The integrated system minimizes the risk of bird collisions with the rotating parts of the wind turbines by stopping single turbines or the entire wind farm, and implements a monitoring program during the risk periods for species of conservation significance. The system integrates information from several radar systems, as well as direct on-site monitoring by ornithologists, who regularly monitor birds in the area, assess potential hazards and, where necessary, issue turbine shutdown orders. Despite its impressive size – 105 meters and the diameter of the rotor 90 meters, each of the generators can stop if there are flying birds and to let them pass.

The total investment in the Saint Nikola Wind Farm project is BGN 540 million provided by the EBRD and the International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank. With its 156MW of capacity, the wind farm provides over 22% of the installed wind power capacity in Bulgaria.