Bulgarian firm to install pilot hydropower plant on pontoon on Danube

With the ambition to build several hydroelectric plants on pontoons on the Danube river in Bulgaria, a local company intends to install a 20 kW pilot facility in Vidin.

An initiative is underway for the deployment of an environmentally friendly energy production technology on Europe’s second-largest river. Vidin-based company Tyfun intends to build a pontoon hydroelectric plant near the Telegraph kapia (Telegraph Gate) of the town’s Kaleto (Baba Vida) fortress.

It is the first phase of its ambition to install several such facilities in the Bulgarian section of the Danube river, according to an investment proposal that it submitted to the Regional Inspectorate for Environmental Protection of Montana.

The firm said the 20 kW micro hydropower plant would not affect any area of ​​the Danube in ​​Bulgaria or its coast.

The construction of the prototype will allow testing of the new source of renewable energy, using a significantly more efficient technology and ensuring a continuous supply of clean energy, Tyfun added. In addition, it will demonstrate the viability of hydrokinetic technology as a reliable renewable energy source from the Danube river, with significant benefits, due to the low cost of energy and minimal adverse environmental impacts, the company said.

The facility would be operational 24 hours a day, all year round. During the first month after commissioning, the efficiency of the technology will be analyzed, as well as its volume, productivity and scope, the project shows.

The machine would be three meters long and 1.5 meters wide, placed on a pontoon of 20 times ten meters.