Producing renewable wind energy in Bulgaria
Context
Bulgaria, situated in southeastern Europe, currently relies on fossil fuels and nuclear energy for the majority of its energy generation. The country is self-sufficient for its own energy production, and exports large quantities of natural gas.
However, in the 21st century, Bulgaria has also become one of the fastest-growing wind energy producers in the world – due in part to its favourable geography. In the northern Black Sea coast area of the country, where this project is located, there are strong winds, particularly during the Winter and Spring.
Generating electricity from wind power is one of the most universally-recognised methods for producing renewable energy – and with advances in the technology making turbines cheaper and more efficient, a huge window of opportunity has opened up to decarbonise the energy sector.
Project
The Saint Nikola Wind Farm project is located in the Municipality of Kavarna, Bulgaria and is designed to generate electricity through wind energy to displace fossil fuel-generated electricity.
The project is made up of 52 wind turbines with a capacity of 3MW each and reaching just under 150 metres each in height, and it covers a total area of 60 square kilometres (although only 6 hectares in total is used permanently for the operation of the wind farm). The wind farm’s careful design allows for the land to continue to be used as agricultural land by local landowners and farmers.
Through the provision of renewable energy to the grid, the project is projected to make emissions reductions of an average 244,224 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, and will reduce emissions by up to 6 million tonnes of emissions over its 20-year lifetime.
The project provides local social impacts through the upgrade of local roads and the provision of jobs, both skilled and unskilled. The project’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) program carries out a wide range of co-projects related to healthcare, education, culture, ecology and sport – all of which are financed to benefit the local community.
Verification
This project is verified by the the Verified Carbon Standard. You can view it on the Verra Registry here.
Climate Solution #2
Onshore wind turbines
Onshore wind turbines generate electricity at a utility scale, comparable to power plants. They replace fossil fuels with emissions-free electricity.
Today, 314,000 wind turbines supply nearly 4 percent of global electricity, and it will soon be much more. In 2015, a record 63 gigawatts of wind power were installed around the world.
Onshore wind farms have small footprints, typically using no more than 1 percent of the land they sit on, so grazing, farming, recreation, or conservation can happen simultaneously with power generation. What’s more, it takes one year or less to build a wind farm—quickly producing energy and a return on investment.