German utility RWE has abandoned Bulgaria’s planned Belene nuclear power plant due to funding problems and Sofia will redesign the project in the next year to attract new investors, officials said yesterday.
RWE said in a statement the funding issue could not be resolved in time and that it had decided to back out. “Fundamental for this step is the fact that in the face of the international financial and economic crisis the question of financing could not be solved within the given time frame,” RWE said.
Belene was due to become operational in 2014-15. Bulgaria’s new center-right government, which has put the 2,000-megawatt Belene plant under review due to rising costs, will hire a consultant to help it decide how to proceed and attract new investors, Bulgarian Energy Holding said.
(from the newspaper "E-Kathimerini", 29/10/2009)