Debt package will support the construction of a 225MW project in north-east of the country.

Rezolv Energy has secured up to €90m in debt financing from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Raiffeisen Bank International to support the construction of a 225MW solar park in north-east Bulgaria.

Construction work on the St George solar park is due to start very shortly, with the plant scheduled to come on stream next year, Resolv said.

This announcement follows the signing in early September of a 12-year Virtual Power Purchase Agreement (VPPA) with Ardagh Glass Packaging-Europe (AGP-Europe), an operating business of Ardagh Group.

The VPPA – one of the first to be signed in Bulgaria – is intended to provide 110GWh per year of renewable electricity from St George to AGP-Europe to help decarbonise its manufacturing operations across Europe.

Also in September, Rezolv confirmed it had selected three companies to build St George.

Bulgarian company Solarpro and CMC Europe will together act as the engineering, procurement and construction partner. The high voltage work will be delivered by Green Solar Energy, another Bulgarian company.

The 225MW St George solar park will be built on a brownfield site: the former Silistra airport, a decommissioned airfield in north-east Bulgaria covering 165 hectares.

The project will comprise nearly 400,000 photovoltaic panels.

It will be connected to the main transmission grid via a 110kV substation and two independent connection lines totalling approximately 6km in length.

With an average annual power generation of more than 310GWh, St George will be one of the largest solar projects in Bulgaria once it is operational next year.

In a country which has historically relied on fossil fuels for most of its energy needs, replacing fossil production with renewables delivers the maximum possible emissions reduction impact.

St George will therefore play a crucial role in Bulgaria’s energy transition and help the country meet its climate targets.

The project will create 200 new jobs in the construction phase, both people involved in light assembly – which is work suitable for men and women, on both a full-time and part-time basis – and highly-skilled engineers.

Longer term, the power plant will provide local employment throughout its 30 plus years of operation.

Rezolv Energy chief executive Alastair Hammond said: “From the very start, we were all excited by the opportunity that St George presented to take a decommissioned airfield, which has not been put to any positive use for many years, and convert it into a project to improve air quality and help Bulgaria meet its climate targets.

“Securing this support from the IFC and Raiffeisen Bank International is a big step towards turning that dream into a reality.”