ACWA Power sells stake in power plant in Bulgaria

Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power has completed a sale of its 100 per cent stake in ACWA Power CF Karad PV Park, owner of the 60.4 MWp Karadzhalovo photovoltaic (PV) power plant in Bulgaria to Austrian Enery Development.

Furthermore, ACWA Power’s subsidiary NOMAC Limited, has also completed the sale of its 100 per cent stake in NOMAC Bulgaria, a company providing Operations & Maintenance (O&M) services to the ACWA Power Karad plant, to Enery Development GmbH for an undisclosed consideration. Both transactions follow the signing of a binding agreement back in December 2019 and constitute the largest brownfield PV deal in Bulgaria to date.

The Karadzhalovo power plant, which is the largest single-site PV plant in Bulgaria, generated 85.56 GWh of carbon-neutral energy in 2019.

“ACWA Power Karad was one of our first solar PV project investments and served as a stepping-stone to our future investments in the renewable Solar PV market in the Middle East, Africa and rest of the world. From those beginnings just a decade ago, we are proud to recognize that approximately 25 per cent of ACWA Power’s total portfolio (based on capital cost) which in the meanwhile has multiplied by four times, comprises of renewable power assets,” said Paddy Padmanathan, President & CEO of ACWA Power.

“This sale represents one of the few complete divestments undertaken by ACWA Power. Being one of our early Solar PV investments, the Karadzhalovo plant provided us with great learnings to expand our footprint in the sector; however, while we maintain our focus on renewables, given the relatively small size of this plant in comparison to the remainder in our rapidly growing portfolio, we believe it now makes sense to sell our stake in this plant,” Rajit Nanda, Chief Investment Officer at ACWA Power.