Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has commenced business in generating electric power by wind turbines in Bulgaria, and selling it locally, through Kaliakra Wind Power AD (KWP), a joint venture established locally with the Bulgarian engineering firm inos Ltd.

The wind farm, Bulgaria's first, has already been built by KWP and is now in operation.

All electricity produced will be sold to Natsionalna Elektricheska Kompania EAD (NEK), Bulgaria's state-owned electricity utility.

The Kaliakra wind power generation and sales project has been planned as a Japanese-Bulgarian Joint Implementation (JI) project to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) sanctioned under the Kyoto Mechanisms framework. JI is a mechanism for obtaining emission credits under the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kaliakra project, once it wins approval as a JI project, will help Japan to achieve the six percent GHG reduction target set for it under the Kyoto Protocol.

The project will simultaneously contribute to the promotion of renewable energy utilisation in Bulgaria and to the acquisition of credits based on emission reduction units (ERU) by Japan.

The KWP wind farm, located at Kaliakra Cape on the Black Sea coast, incorporates 35 MWT62/1.0 wind turbines and has a capacity to generate 35 megawatts (MW) of electricity. The wind turbines, each having a rated power output of 1,000kW, were manufactured at MHI's Nagasaki Shipyard and Machinery Works and Yokohama Machinery Works.

The KWP project is expected, availing of wind power, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by some 85,000 tons annually compared to conventional thermal power generation. Of the emission credits obtained through the project, up to 350,000 tons will be sold to Japan Carbon Finance, Ltd. MHI will purchase any surplus credit beyond 350,000 tons.