China Development Bank provides EUR 103 million loan to Astronergy for construction of PV solar energy plants

China Development Bank (CDB) Zhejiang Branch extended an EUR 103 million loan to a private company called Astronergy Co., Ltd. (Chint Solar) for the construction of photovoltaic (PV) solar energy plants in Bulgaria with an aggregate capacity of 60MW. On June 12, 2012, Astronergy Co., Ltd. — a subsidiary of the CHINT Group — announced that it had completed the construction of these solar power plants and they had achieved their commercial operations date (COD). These plants are expected to generate 1,858,548,000 kWh of electricity over the next 25 years. The project took approximately three months to complete construction. The reported power generation capacity of this project varies from 45MW to 60MW across different sources. CDB identifies the project as a '60 MW solar power project’. CMS Legal Services EEIG identifies the project as supporting eleven separate renewable energy projects with a total capacity of 45 MW. Siyana Timcheva, a former project manager, notes on her Linkedin Page that the CDB loan supported independent renewable energy projects with a total capacity of 45 MW. The Astronergy website identifies eight different power plants in Bulgaria, all completed in June 2012 with a total capacity of 45.1 MW.

Additional details

1. The loan (signature) commitment year is not specified by any available sources. AidData has set the commitment year to 2012 for the time being (since this is the year when construction began). 2. While it is known that Astronergy constructed the Valchin, Hanovo, Smolnik, Skobelevo, Bezmer, Yambol, Chargan, Cherveniakovo, Palauovo solar energy plants in Bulgaria, it is not known which specific plants were constructed with the proceeds of the CDB loan. This issue merits further investigation.

Number of official sources

5

Number of total sources

13