Wind farm projects in Bulgaria are to receive state support through the first class investors certification initiative.

The state will provide support in terms of infrastructure and land purchase to two wind farm projects. The first, located near the northern Black Sea town of Kavarna, is to be built on Cape Kaliakra. The Bulgarian Wind Centrals company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of France's Societe industrielle de l'atlantique, and Inos-1, local representatives of the Mitsubishi Corporation, are the main investors in the project, which is estimated at 150 million euro. By the end of the year, 75 generators of two MW each are to be installed and operating at the site.

The second project is to take place in the Suvorovo municipality in north-east Bulgaria. The Bulgarian-Spanish venture Eolica is to invest 120 million leva in the project, which is expected to create 20 new jobs.

These are two of four projects that will bring a combined total of 350 million leva in investment into the Bulgarian economy for which the state has initiated the procedure of issuing first class investors certificates.

"The first class investors may rely on the support of the state for construction of infrastructure, purchase of land from the State Land andForestry Fund without a tender, and will also receive their licenses in shorter terms," said Stoyan Stalev, head of the InvestBulgaria Agency.

In February, Bulgaria's Ecosource Energy was also certified as a first class investor by the InvestBulgaria Agency for its 156 million leva investment in the construction of Bulgaria's first wind farm on the Stara Planina ridge in central Bulgaria, in the region of Mourgash Peak. The project is to consist of 44 Enercon 2.3MW turbines, 20 of which are expected to be installed and running by the end of this year. The remaining 24 turbines, all of which are to be erected at a height of 1500-1600m in the Stara Planina range, are to be installed over the next two years. Ecosource Energy will provide 30-50 per cent of the financing for the 100MW project, the remainder coming from bank loans. The company expects to recoup the investment in nine years. Bulgaria's national power grid operator NTEC will purchase the wind farm's output at 0.12 leva/kWh.

Approval for the wind farm project in Kaliakra came at the beginning of May, following protests from environmentalists. The Varna Regional Inspectorate for Environment and Water Protection gave the project the go-ahead with seven votes for and four abstentions. The project became a source of controversy last year when international members of the Bern Convention claimed the proposed wind farm posed a "major threat" to more than half a million migratory birds from all of Europe. The Bern Convention and other non-government organisations, such as the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB), voiced concerns over the location of the wind farm on a route used by migratory birds.

The region around the Kaliakra nature reserve is an important bird area of global importance, and is home to over 131 bird species that are designated as either threatened or endangered, according to the European Union Birds Directive and the Law of Biodiversity Conservation.

The BSPB found that during only one migratory season, more than 29 000 white storks, pelicans and cranes, and about 2500 raptors passed through the Kaliakra region.

"Our studies show that 40 per cent of these birds fly at a height of less than 150m, and only nine per cent fly at a height above 500m. The majority of the birds migrating through the Kaliakra region could potentially come into direct collision with the propellers of the windmills," the BSPB said.

The report issued by the Varna Inspectorate this May stated that the proposed site for the construction of the wind farm posed no ecological threat. The assessment of the risk that the turbines posed to birds on the migration route was reported to be many times smaller than the risk from traffic, power lines and buildings. The report, however, obliges the investors in the wind farm to install a radar system for the early detection of flocks of birds. Once the wind farm is operating, it will contribute to the eight to 12 per cent of the country's power required by the European Union to come from renewable energy sources by 2008.