Latest news with #Bulgaria
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Climate
- Daily Mail
Suspected arsonist, 33, is charged with terrorism after being caught lighting fires in Bulgaria - as country battles 160 fires while infernos rage across Europe amid apocalyptic 50.5C heatwave
A suspected arsonist has been charged with terrorism after CCTV captured him lighting fires in Bulgaria as a wave of wildfires continues to rage across Europe. Firefighters were battling 160 wildfires across Bulgaria on Monday, as 11 regions in the country have been put on red alert due to the high temperatures. Shocking footage shows a 33-year-old man appearing to set fire to a verge of grass next to a pavement, as flames quickly spread up the bank. Officers arrested the man and charged him with terrorism. Europe has been hit by a wave of wildfires and blistering heat as a dangerous combination of high winds, drought, and soaring temperatures triggers mass evacuations. Around 90 per cent of the fires in Bulgaria have been caused by human error and negligence, said Miroslav Rashkov, the head of the interior ministry. Several suspects have been arrested on suspicion of arson, Mr Rashkvo added. In neighbouring Turkey, wildfires over the past week have led to at least 14 deaths and sparked the evacuations of 19 villages and more than 3,500 people elsewhere from their homes. Turkey's latest heatwave peaked with temperatures above 40C across much of the country last week and even reached a record 50.5C on Friday in the far southeast, in Silopi, near the Iraqi and Syrian borders. 'We are burning up, we don't even know where to go anymore,' Asmin Gezginci, 24, said while returning from a park to her home in the Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir. Officials fighting to keep the fires under control have called the situation 'apocalyptic', warning that it can take 'days' to control the worst of the infernos. A firefighter battling the flames died of a heart attack on Saturday. Greece, too, has endured heatwave conditions for a week, with temperatures passing 40C degrees in many areas. Over the weekend, 55 new fires erupted across the country, though all but five were brought under control. Terrified beachgoers were seen fleeing by boat from beaches in Italy 's Sardinia Island as fires surged inland. Dramatic scenes unfolded on July 27 at Villasimius in southern Sardinia, where flames tore down towards the shoreline, trapping dozens of beachgoers. With roads cut off, tourists were rescued by boat, while many cars were engulfed in flames behind them. According to officials, strong winds were hindering rescue operations as people scrambled to get on the boats. In Greece, hundreds of firefighters are battling out-of-control infernos stretching from Crete to Evia and the Peloponnese, as locals and holidaymakers are ordered to abandon homes and hotels under choking clouds of smoke. This month, a massive blaze erupted near Ierapetra, Crete, with walls of fire tearing through dry brush and hillside communities. With some fires still active, the UK's Foreign Office has issued a travel advisory to the popular holiday destination. More than 1,500 people were officially evacuated, though reports suggest up to 5,000 tourists left on their own as flames crept dangerously close to coastal resorts Fires are also raging on the mainland, with Evia, Kythera, Attica and the Peloponnese all on red alert. Authorities described the situation as a 'titanic battle', with reinforcements called in from EU partners to try and contain the devastation. As flames spread through southern Turkey, the country registered its highest-ever temperature on July 25, with the town of Silopi in Şırnak Province hitting a blistering 50.5C, breaking the previous record of 49.1C set in 2021. The unprecedented heat has turned huge swathes of countryside into a tinderbox, sparking dozens of wildfires in İzmir, Hatay, Bursa, Karabuk, Eskişehir and beyond. In İzmir Province, more than 50,000 residents were forced to flee 41 settlements in late June after firestorms engulfed entire villages. The flames later reached Dörtyol in Hatay, triggering the evacuation of another 2,000 people. Tragically, at least 17 people have been confirmed dead, including volunteer firefighters, civilian responders, and locals overwhelmed by the flames in Eskişehir, Bursa, and Karabuk. In Bursa alone, nearly 1,800 residents were displaced as 1,900 emergency crews scrambled to contain several active fires. Footage shared online shows thick black smoke blanketing motorways and panicked families loading belongings into cars as embers fall from the sky. Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on X: 'We remain on alert day and night with 27 aircraft, 105 helicopters, nearly 6,000 ground vehicles, 25,000 heroic forestry personnel, and 132,000 volunteers.' Meanwhile, the country's agriculture and forestry minister said: 'We are going through high-risk days' and warned that the crisis may not be over until October. The three nations are not the only European countries battling wildfires this summer. Cyprus, Spain, Albania, and Montenegro have all contended with huge blazes in the last month. In Cyprus, a fiery blaze last week left thousands of people displaced. An elderly couple escaping the fires in their car were trapped inside and burned alive. A couple told MailOnline how they rushed to escape the flames with seconds to spare and returned to find their dream villa burned to the ground. Albania firefighters are also facing dozens of fire fronts due to a combination of the heatwave and suspected arson. On Friday, around 2,000 residents in Delvina were forced to leave their homes. Several homes have been damaged, and many forestlands have been left charred. In Kosovo, officials have been able to put out 17 fires that were fuelled by strong winds. However, 12 remain active. Eight cows were killed on a farm in Prizren when a fire broke out, according to firefighters. A separate fire in another region also killed 40 sheep. In France, a fast‑moving wildfire near Marseille on 8 July 2025 injured approximately 100 people. It destroyed around 10 homes and prompted the evacuation of roughly 400 residents, while Marseille-Provence Airport suspended all flights temporarily. The blaze scorched about 350 hectares in the Les Pennes‑Mirabeau area, forcing shutdowns of highways, rail services and tunnels into and out of the city. Meanwhile, three people were killed and at least 41 injured after a train derailed near Riedlingen in southwestern Germany on Sunday. Authorities believe heavy rain caused a sewage shaft to overflow, triggering a landslide that led to the accident. The train, carrying around 100 passengers, derailed at 6:10pm local time. Among the dead were the train driver and a staff member. Severe storms had swept through the region at the time. Police said there is no evidence of foul play.
Telegraph
a day ago
- Telegraph
Suspected arsonist caught on CCTV amid raging wildfires
An arson suspect was caught on CCTV lighting fires in Bulgaria while deadly wildfires continue to sweep across the country and neighbouring Turkey and Greece. Firefighters were battling 160 wildfires across the Black Sea nation on Monday as much of southern Europe baked under an unabating and deadly heatwave. The footage showed a man appearing to set fire to patches of grass next to a pavement, with flames quickly spreading as he casually walks away. Authorities detained the 33-year-old and charged him with terrorism. In Bulgaria, about 90 per cent of blazes have been caused by human error and negligence, said Miroslav Rashkov, the head of the interior ministry. He added that several suspects had been arrested for arson. Meanwhile, at least 14 people have been killed in Turkey, where infernos are raging across three different regions, stoked by strong winds after days of searing heat. According to forecasts, temperatures are not expected to cool down, with 45C to 50C heat expected in the country's south-east on Tuesday. The heatwave has exacerbated forest fires – which are growing in their frequency each summer as temperatures increase and rainfall decreases – that spread rapidly in dry, windy conditions. 'We are burning up – we don't even know where to go any more,' Asmin Gezginci, 24, told AFP while returning from a park to her home in the Turkish city of Diyarbakir. In Bursa, in the country's north-west, three firefighters were killed when their vehicle crashed on Sunday, authorities said on Monday. More than 3,600 had to be evacuated around Bursa, while 19 villages had to be evacuated in the Safranbolu region in the north. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's president, said on Monday that more than 3,000 fires had broken out since the beginning of summer, some as the result of arson. In a televised address, he added that 96 per cent of the fires were caused by human activity, such as cigarette butts and picnic fires. 'Let us not forget that this is a war, a defence of our green homeland, against this insidious enemy,' Mr Erdogan told the nation. Greece also struggled to clear up after a devastating week of forest fires that ravaged homes and sparked evacuations across the country. At least 44 new wildfires broke out across the country in the past 24 hours, the fire service said on Monday, while Spanish planes were deployed to help Portuguese firefighters tackle a blaze on a remote mountain. Italy is also sweltering under the heatwave. On Sunday in Sardinia, about 140 tourists were forced to flee by boat from a beach in the south of the island when a huge wildfire broke out nearby, blocking other escape routes. In Albania, more than 900 firefighters, assisted by the army, struggled to control a wildfire before it reached the seaside city of Sarandë and other tourist resorts in the south. About 13 people have been arrested for arson-related offences in the past three days, police said.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
SUNOTEC and Sungrow to deploy 2.4GWh BESS across Europe
SUNOTEC has signed an agreement with Sungrow to deploy 2.4 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery energy storage systems (BESS) across multiple solar power projects in Europe. The collaboration emphasises SUNOTEC's long-term strategy to expedite the incorporation of flexible and intelligent energy systems into its solar infrastructure portfolio. The 2.4GWh energy storage capacity will bolster grid stability, facilitate improved integration of renewable energy and enhance the reliability of solar parks developed by SUNOTEC across Bulgaria and broader Europe. Sungrow will supply its PowerTitan 2.0 BESS solution along with the string inverter SG350HX-20 and MVS for a hybrid project, comprising photovoltaic (PV) and BESS. Sungrow regional director for Central and Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe and CIS the Commonwealth of Independent States, which is the group of nations around the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea] Anastasios Gkinis stated: 'This collaboration with SUNOTEC is a cornerstone of our mission to accelerate clean energy deployment in Bulgaria and across Europe. 'Combining Sungrow's cutting-edge energy storage technology with SUNOTEC's execution excellence, we create a powerful force to redefine the energy landscape in Bulgaria and support the region's transition to a sustainable energy future.' SUNOTEC's forthcoming portfolio features several large-scale projects nationwide, designed to address energy storage requirements. Among the projects set for development, several will receive funding from Bulgaria's RESTORE national support programme. All will be flagship installations, showcasing some of the largest and most advanced energy storage systems in both the country and Europe to date. SUNOTEC founder and CEO Kaloyan Velichkov stated: 'The global energy transition depends not only on how much renewable power we produce, but on how intelligently we manage and store. 'This partnership with SUNGROW reflects our shared ambition to lead the next chapter of clean energy — by building resilient, storage-enabled infrastructure that brings stability, sustainability and scale to markets across Europe and beyond.' In July 2025, SUNOTEC finalised the acquisition of SIA DSE Lazas Solar's solar and energy storage project in Latvia from Danish Sun Energy. This acquisition will facilitate the development of a new PV solar power plant with a capacity of 400 megawatts peak (MWp) and an additional 600 megawatt hours (MWh) of BESS. "SUNOTEC and Sungrow to deploy 2.4GWh BESS across Europe" was originally created and published by Power Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Renalfa receives €315m to boost renewable energy in Europe
Independent power producer (IPP) Renalfa has obtained €315m ($369.8m) from a consortium led by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The financing is aimed at advancing the green energy transition in Central and Eastern Europe. It will bolster Renalfa's €1.2bn investment programme, which is set to bring 1.6GW of generation assets and 3.3 gigawatt hours (GWh) of co-located battery energy storage systems (BESS) online across Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and North Macedonia. These initiatives will provide 2.3 terawatt hours (TWh) of green electricity every year, sufficient to supply energy to 920,000 households. The integration of BESS will address the intermittency issues commonly associated with renewable energy, enhancing the stability of the electrical grid. The consortium's efforts were led by the EBRD, which contributed €100m directly and facilitated an additional €100m from commercial banks through an A/B loan structure. This is the first instance of the EBRD utilising the InvestEU first loss guarantee in a hybrid model, enabling both the EBRD and the banks participating in the A/B loan structure to benefit from the EU's risk-sharing mechanism. The move aims to mitigate market risks linked to merchant renewable power generation and cutting-edge storage technologies. Renalfa IPP CEO Ivo Prokopiev stated: 'The successful raising of growth funding is an important milestone for Renalfa IPP and for our whole group. It proves the competitiveness of our integrated model for developing, investing and operating large hybrid assets. 'The early implementation of long duration co-located BESS allows Renalfa IPP to start offering green baseload products to market in CEE for the first time. We are proud, together with our partners from RGREEN INVEST, to be at the forefront of energy transition not only in CEE, but in the whole EU.' The InvestEU programme is expected to catalyse more than €372bn in additional investments from 2021 to 2027. Between 2022 and 2027, the EBRD plans to leverage InvestEU guarantees worth €777m to fund investments of up to €2.7bn in qualified sectors. The EBRD will also facilitate the development of a training programme focused on BESS-related skills, targeting both current employees and prospective professionals in the region. Renalfa is set to collaborate with local universities to launch a campaign encouraging women to pursue careers in the energy sector. The lending consortium includes other financial institutions Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, OTP Bank, Nova Ljubljanska Banka, UniCredit and Kommunalkredit. Kommunalkredit served as the sole financial advisor to Renalfa IPP and acted as joint global coordinator alongside UniCredit. Legal counsel for the lenders was provided by A&O Shearman, while Ashurst represented Renalfa IPP. EBRD Banking vice-president Matteo Patrone stated: 'This is a landmark transaction, which will accelerate the much-needed deployment of renewable energy, reduce reliance on fossil fuels and strengthen energy security in a region still heavily dependent on carbon-intensive sources. 'We are proud to have been able to support this transaction, and, leveraging an InvestEU guarantee, to mobilise private sector investors to achieve a strong regional impact.' In April 2025, the EBRD disclosed plans to allocate €1bn in aid by 2025 to support Ukraine's war-affected energy sector and bolster the nation's energy resilience. "Renalfa receives €315m to boost renewable energy in Europe" was originally created and published by Power Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
Reuters
2 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Ukraine signs first Transbalkan gas deal with Azerbaijan's SOCAR
KYIV, July 28 (Reuters) - Ukraine's state-owned oil and gas major Naftogaz has signed its first deal with Azerbaijan's SOCAR to import natural gas via the Transbalkan route, it said on Monday. "For the first time, a test shipment of gas is being delivered through the Transbalkan route along the Bulgaria–Romania–Ukraine corridor," Naftogaz said in a statement on its website. The Ukrainian company said the agreement was for a small volume of gas, and did not specify timelines. "This is a small volume but strategically important step that paves the way for long-term cooperation," Naftogaz CEO Serhiy Koretskyi was quoted in the statement.
